The Celtic review

Vol. VII. No. 26.

THE CELTIC
REVIEW

Consulting Editor: PROFESSOR MACKINNON
Editor: MRS. W. J. WATSON

(MISS E. C. CARMICHAEL)

JULY 1911

Page

A Breton Village. E. C. Watson, . .... 97

The Gaelic Version of the Thebaid of Statius. Professor
Mackinnon, . 106

The Pictish Race and Kingdom — continued. James
Ferguson, K.C., 122

Thugar Maighdean A Chuil-Bhuidhe. Alexander Car-
michael, LL.D., . 138

In Memoriam : Alfred Nutt (1856-1910). Eleanor Hull, . 143

Helgebiorn the Heathen Alice Milligan, . . 146

The Mabinogion as Literature. Miss E. J. Lloyd, . . 164

Old Irish Song. Alfred Perceval Graves, M.A., . . .174

Celtic Notes, 187

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THE CELTIC REVIEW

MAY 1911

A BEETON VILLAGE

E. C. C. Watson

Brittany is associated in our niinds with quaint, old-world
people and customs, and the little village of St. Jacut-de-la-
mer does not belie the reputation of the country. St. Jacut
stands on one of those long, fertile peninsulas which are a
chief feature of the north-west of France. The coast line
is deeply indented, the irregular rocky masses forming a
charming contrast to the long stretches of silvery sand, while
further out are dotted islands of varying shapes and sizes,
many of which can be reached on foot at low water. The
greenness of the land which surrounds the hamlet is broken
by the golden corn growing between the heavily laden fruit
trees, and by the fields of beautiful buckwheat, its starry
white flowers shining radiantly against the red stems and
green leaves. The first glimpse of the village shows it
different from others. It is a ' lang toun ' indeed, but an
exceedingly narrow one. An old Breton writer has de-
scribed the houses as ' turning their backs on the cold north
wind and opening their doors to the southern sun,' and one
is struck by the way in which, with one accord, the houses
all face in the same direction. The only street of the village
runs north and south so that the houses all stand with a
gable to the road, giving a peculiar effect as one walks
through. On entering the village by land, one sees a
' Calvary ' consecrating the ground where several ship-
wrecked sailors have found their last resting-place — a

VOL. VII. G

t

98 * THE CELTIC EEVIEW

fitting entrance to this home of seafaring folks. A few yards
further on stands a simple grey stone cross, which involun-
tarily carried our thoughts across the sea to our own holy
sea-girt Iona. The fronts of the houses are covered with
vines and pear-trees, framing the doors and windows with
green leaves^ and clusters of fruit, while the garden which
each house possesses is well stocked with vegetables, flowers,
and fruit-trees.

The people have the simple earnestness and frank
happiness of those who live removed from towns. The
men are tall, handsome, and ' clean limbed ' beyond
the common. The women are not above the average
height, but are well made and good-looking — many of them
pretty, with piquant faces, lovely big brown eyes, and with
dark brown hair under their snowy winged caps. All give
the strangers kindly welcome, even the little children stop
their play to drop curtsies and wish them bonjour in
their baby French. The men of the village are chiefly
fishermen and sailors, away from home for from seven to
nine months of the year, during which time the women wait
and work and pray for their safe return. But not always
are their prayers granted. The. very small number of even
elderly men in the village was almost incredible, while the
number of women who wore mourning- caps was heart-
rending. One could sincerely sympathise with their saying :
1 Femme de marin femme de chagrin ' (wife of a sailor a wife
of sorrow). From March to May the fishing-boats are
leaving for far seas, and the long months pass slowly till,
about the end of October, the boats begin to straggle back.
Then those whose fathers, husbands, and brothers have
returned rejoice, but even in their joy they do not forget to
weep with those whose dear ones sleep under the deep
waters that ^surround the Newfoundland coast. After a
time there are marriages, for tl^e home time is short and
these always take place about the end of November, when
the fishing season is done.

From our vine-framed window we look out on to an open

y

A BKETON VILLAGE 99

space where stands an old ivy-cowered draw-well, round
which centres much of the life of the village. Here the
6 takes ' of mackerel, flounders, and other fish, landed by the
boats which have remained f qt the home fishing, are washed
in large tubs. Then they are counted, packed in fresh grass
and rushes, and covered with cool, cabbage leaves to be sent
to the nearest market town. What excitement there is
round that silent old well which has supplied so many
generations ! The ' halflin ' lads are eager to take part in^^
this as in the catching of the fish, but the man whose duty it
is to count the ' take,' and whose arithmetical powers are
not of the sharpest, has serious objections to so many
assistants. He only keeps his temper with apparent
difficulty while he endeavours by force and entreaty to
persuade t^e lads to leave the scene. When he is getting
rapidly reduced to a state of helplessness and despair
he has a bright inspiration and sends them off to get the
cabbage leaves, with many injunctions to see that they
are pretty ones. Being a useful matter connected with
the work in hand, and having the great advantage of
taking them into their neighbours' gardens, the boys are
satisfied with their errand, and the leaves are placed over
the fish in the baskets to the satisfaction of the old man's
critical eye.

But it is not only the men and boys who are interested in
the fish. At such times the maidens find that much water is
required for domestic purposes, and

' Gin a body meet a body comin' f rae the well,
Gin a body meet a body heed a body tell ? '

On one occasion her father appeared inopportunely, but the
young fisherman was equal to the emergency, and quick as
thought he made the girl sit on the ledge of the well, half
closed the wooden doors, and turned to greet the man whom
he hoped to make his father-in-law. He showed off the
fine baskets of fish, then artfully guided the unsuspicious
parent shorewards while the maiden slipped demurely home.

\

100 THE CELTIC REVIEW

And what numbers of pails and jars were accidentally lost
down that deep wellj Then it was necessary to get a
large fish-hook and a long line, and, of course, a young
sailor or fisherman would gallantly come to the rescue
and there were grateful looks and wgrds inaudible tb
other ears.

Every day wfrole families — fathers, mothers, and
children, French visitors — armed with wading-shoes and
shrimping-nets, went to the sands to catch shrimps. They
formed a strong contrast to the poverty-stricken old women
whose sole livelihood was in gathering bait on the long
stretches of sand and rock left exposed by the tide. It was
pathetic to see these brave women, barefooted and with their
skirts kilted up to their knees, their backs bent from hard

/work and the carrying of heavy loads of bait, returning in
the gloaming to a cheerless home and to the three or four
children whose bread depended on their labour. The occu-
* pation is a last resource, and those who are driven to it are
generally the widows of fishermen who have found peace
beneath the waves without having been able, out of an
uncertain income, to intake provision for those dependent on
them. Bait-gatherers look very picturesque, but it is an
occupation which soon brings on rheumatism in its worst
forms and many other diseases.

At harvest time the dull thud of the flail is heard, and
the loud, whirring hum of the primitive threshing-mill, which
is turned by horses in gorgeous blue sheepskin collars. They
are directed by a man who stands at the junction of the
three shafts and whose large straw hat and long whip add to
the striking features of our little village.

In the meantime, the windmills, which commandingly
occupy the high ground on each side of the village, are
getting ready for the grain which is to be crushed between
their enormous stones. The huge ladder arms, so long bare,
are now covered with brown and white sails, which have
already done duty at sea when they were strong to battle
with the wind. The roofs are turned round that the

A BKETON VILLAGE 101

breeze may catch the sails and the giant arms begin to
move slowly.

There is one handloom in the village and a few spinning-
wheels are still left. The latter are more primitive than
those of the Highlands. There is no treadle, the wheel being
turned by the right hand while the left guides and smooths
the thread. s

Our little landlady, whose husband is a sailor and away
for from nine to ten months in the year, was always ready to
spend a couple of hours, in telling us tales of the district
and of the customs of the people. We learnt that each
district has its own distinctive cap, and thus a Breton can
tell the district of any woman by the cap she wears. The
cap of our district is close fitting, with a little peak at the
back. A band is attached to one side and passing under the
chin is caught in a bow at the left ear. When the wearer is
in mourning this cap has the addition of a straight piece
which hangs down on each side, and streamers at the
back. In half-mourning the flaps are pinned back to form
a triangle and the streamers are tied in a bow. The whole
cap is made of fine snow-white linen, and its very simplicity
makes it the handsomest and most distinguished-looking of
Breton caps.

When a woman is in mourning she must not wear any
silk — not even the fringe of her shawl may be of silk— and
what she does wear must be ' unis ' — all of one material, all
wool, all cotton, or all linen.

There is much pleasant rivalry between the populations
of the different districts and hamlets. All have nicknames
for each other — our nearest neighbours across the bay being
the ' Prussians.'

Perhaps the thing that surprised our landlady most was
to hear us talk English. One day she suddenly asked if it
hurt us to talk English, and when we showed surprise at the
question, though with some difficulty we maintained a polite
gravity, she explained that it sounded as if it must be a very
painful language to speak !

/

/

102 THE CELTIC EEVIEW

Breton crockery still retains its distinctive features here.
Coffee is served in bowls with two handles resembling in
shape a Highland cuach. ' Ragouts ' come to the table in
lovely orange-brown dishes, and the colours of the figures and
scenes which are painted on the ware are such as to satisfy
the most artistic taste.

On Sunday all wend their way to the little church, which
stands on a gentle slope at the end of the village, and behind
a garden of bright flowers and shrubs. The whitewashed
walls, the plain wooden pews, 4ne little galleries where sit
the nuns and their charges, the boat-shaped roof with the
pathetic little models of boats — votive offerings for safe
returns — suspended from it, the simple service, performed
by one priest while another plays the harmonium, are
all in keeping with the congregation of white -capped
women and blue- jacketed men, and we felt it was indeed
good for us to be there and to chant the Psalms in
the grand old Latin tongue with these devout Roman
Catholics.

Sometimes there is a procession, when the chanting
priests and the little acolytes — one of whonv carries a silver
cross — lead the way. Then come the nuns and the school
children. They are followed by more acolytes who carry a
figure of the Virgin and Child (or the image of the Saint whose
day it is) on a board supported on their shoulders. The
men and women fall into line and complete the procession.
The Litany is chanted as they move slowly along to the
harbour where the fishing-boats ride at anchor. A short
service is held there, and the procession moves on again,
between the fields of white buckwheat and purple vetch,
past the old windmill and through the village street to the
church. Having made the circuit the processionists re-
enter^the church for Benediction.

On All Souls' Eve the little churchyard is strewn with
freshly gathered seashells and all is made exceeding fair.
At midnight there is a procession to it when public lamenta-
tion is made, and pkiyers are offered for the souls of the

A BBETON VILLAGE 103

departed. All who have been widowed since the last All
Souls' Day spend the day in the church in prayer and
fasting. ,

St. John's Day is a bright one in the village. The young
men have been busy beforehand, and in the early morning
each plants a green branch, adorned with flowers and
ribbons, before the door of the house where his own
particular fair one lives. The flowers and ribbons are in
time transferred to the person of the recipient. The
Church takes her part in the happiness of the day, which
is spent in festivity and mirth.

Not far from St. Jacut is an ancient castle of the Dukes
of Brittany. It is now a picturesque ruin, but, even in its
decay, its strength and size show that it must have been one
of the most formidable of European strongholds. It stands
at the head of a deep bay — one end of the rock on which it is
built being washed by the waves. The shell lime used has
held the walls so securely that two, almost three, sides of the
castle are still three stories high, and several of the inner
walls remain. Tall trees grow in the courtyard and in the
roofless chambers. A curse has been upon the place since a
son of the house was treacherously bidden as a guest, and
foully murdered by his kinsmen. To this day the peasants,
passing at night, hear the murdered man's wife shrieking,
' Guildo ! Guildo ! ' as she vainly seeks him. No peasant
who owns cattle or sheep will venture to cross the moat of
this grim old castle. The rash one who does so will lose all.
Near by is a battlefield where the British were defeated by
the French in the reign of George n.

Having seen some interesting-looking door lintels as we
drove to our village on the top of the diligence, we one day
set out to have a closer view of them. We found that
several of them were evidently tombstones. The most
interesting has a sword cut on it and a Latin inscription to
the effect that the stone was to the memory of a certain
1 man ' (whose name we could not decipher) ' and Ana his
wife.' From the woman who lived in the house we learnt

104 THE CELTIC REVIEW

that the stone had been bought by her father, some sixty-
years before, for forty francs, and that it had come f rqm the
Abbey of St. Jacut. After the stone had been taken home
by the purchaser, the cure had come and washed it with
aqua forte to enable him to read the inscription, as he wished
to. know if it was the stone of Lobineau, the great patriot and
collector of Breton history and legends. When we returned
to St. Jacut we made inquiries and found that Dom Lobineau
is regarded as little short of a saint. The only tablet on the
church walls is one to him, and there is also a stone to
commemorate him in the churchyard. This memorial is a
curious one — a small Latin cross set on the top of a very high
Breton menhir. A proprietaire in the village kindly lent us
an old book, and from this we read of the persecutions which
Lobineau had endured, on account of his patriotism and
his collecting of the history and legends of his country, at
the hands of certain ' noble ' families, and how, driven from
place to place, he had retired, poor and in bad health, to end
his days in St. Jacut.

We also learnt of the early history of the village.

An Irishman, with his wife and family, had come to
Brittany to teach Christianity. In time ^his sons grew up
and both became missionaries. Both founded monasteries.
One of them came to what is now St. Jacut, and there founded
a religious house and taught the Gospel. His good works
were known far and wide and a considerable village sprang
up round his monastery. Through generations the work
was carried on. A noble abbey took the place of the little
monastery, and both abbey and village were known by the
name of the Irish monk. Not till the fanatics of the Revolu-
tion destroyed the abbey so utterly that there is now no trace
of the building left, was the work interrupted. But it was
only an interruption. A convent took the place of the abbey
when peace was restored, and now a Dominican sisterhood
continues the work of the monks. They nurse the sick and
help the poor, and to them the children of the village go for
education.

A BBETON VILLAGE 105

The grey stone cross standing near the entrance of the
village was the first erected, and is said to be very old.
Though not what is known as a Celtic cross, it connects the
village of St. Jacut with Celtic Christianity, for it goes back
to the old traditions ; and it was not without cause that at
the sight of it our thoughts had gone out to Iona in the west.
Hearing the story of the founding of the village of St. Jacut-
de-la-mer brought to us fresh reverence for the high-souled
enthusiasm of these noble men and women who from Ireland
and Scotland, from the scenes of the labours of Patrick and
Columba travelled in bands and families to England and to
the then largely dark Continent till they came to a people
who needed their message of peace and their loving help.
We remembered how St. Bernard had compared the Celtic
missionaries on the Continent to a flood, and how a promi-
nent Scottish church historian has written that they ' were
the most successful missionaries that have ever entered the
field.^ We remembered how all who had a desire for know-
ledge and learning were welcomed to Ireland. From
Scotland and England and from all parts of the European
Continent they went — as many as fifty Boman youths in one
band — and all were given food, books, and instruction free
of all charge as long as they wished to study, so that a
distinguished writer says truly that ' no more honourable
testimony has ever been borne to any nation's hospitality
and love of learning than this.' Most fittingly was Ireland
called ' Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum' ^

The number of these Celtic missionaries and the vast
extent of their unselfish labours can never be known, for
they worked not for praise or renown and, with few excep-
tions, it is only in the places they have made holy that their
names are reverently and lovingly remembered.

106 THE CELTIC BEVIEW

THE GAELIC VERSION OF THE THEBAID
OF STATIUS

Professor Mackinnon

It must have been, in large measure, their passion for the
heroic and romantic that drew the minds of the old Gaelic
scholars to the Epics of Greece and Rome. They read
the Odes of Horace and glossed the Georgics of Virgil, but
they made versions of the Iliad, the Mneid, the Pharsalia,
and the Thebaid. To them the honour belongs of having
been the first to render a masterpiece of classical antiquity
into a modern tongue. While the French version of the
Legend of Troy was not done until about 1180 a.d., a
portion of the Togail Troi, or the Destruction of Troy,
appears in the Book of Leinster (circa 1147), and may have
been done many years earlier.

The Gaels, like others, knew of the Greek epics only
through such Latin versions as were current. That of the
Iliad by Dares the Phrygian was the favourite among the
WesternTpeoples. It favoured the Trojans, from whom they
claimed descent.

These Gaelic versions are all done on a uniform plan,
practically that of the Gaelic Tale. A prefatory note
gives the leading events from some far-back date down
to the time when the Tale proper commences. Thereafter
the original author is followed more or less closely. But
a translation, as we understand the term, is not attempted.
The version is presented in plain, often bald, prose. The
6 translator ' compresses or expands the original text at
pleasure. As a rule compression is resorted to in discussions
of state policy, whether by gods or men, and in matters
pertaining to religion, while descriptions of heroes, fights,
games, with storms on land or sea, are largely amplified.
Occasionally discrepancies of text are noted, and so far
reconciled, but more frequently foreign customs are ex-
plained through the medium of Gaelic folk-lore.

Of these versions the late Dr. Whitley Stokes has

THE THEBAID OF STATIUS 107

printed, with translation, vocabulary, and notes, the Togail
Troi (Calcutta, 1881-82 ; Irische Texte, ii. 1, Leipzig, 1884),
and the Pharsalia, Irische Texte, iv. 2, Leipzig, 1909 ;
Dr. Kuno Meyer the Merugud Uilix maicc Leirtis, ' The
Wandering of Ulysses the son of Laertes,' based upon an
unknown Latin echo of the Odyssey (London, D. Nutt, 1886) ;
and the Rev. George Calder, B. D., the Mneid (Irish Texts
Society, vol. vi.).

The Gaelic version of the Thebaid has not hitherto been
printed. There is a complete copy in the Brit. Mus. (Egerton,
1781, pp. 173-253). It is written in a large, clear hand,
much contracted, and dated 1487. A fragment is in Dublin
(T. C. D. MS. H. 2, 7, now 1298, pp. 457a-460b), the date
of which is 1479. Another copy is in the Advocates' Library
Collection (MS. viii. Kilbride, No. iv.). This copy is written
in double column, in a good and pretty correct hand, on
twenty-six leaves of parchment, folio size. The MS. is
undated, but the first twenty-one leaves of it were probably
written early in the fifteenth century. It is unfortunately
incomplete. The MS. was for a long time without cover,
and the first page is now quite illegible. At the end of
fol. 7 the scribe missed a column which he afterwards wrote
out on a narrow slip of thin vellum which is preserved.
Between fols. 21 and 22 there is a gap which corresponds
roughly to Statius's text, Books ix. line 280 to x. line 75.
The last five leaves are written in a less correct and, one
should say, somewhat later hand.

The Edinburgh and London texts are of common origin.
It would have been impossible to produce two renderings
so different from the original text and so uniformly alike
as these two are. A noticeable peculiarity in both MSS.,
and especially in the Edinburgh copy, is the very frequent
use of u for b and/, uo e.g. for bo, and ua for fa (fo). In the
following transcript the Edinburgh text is followed where
existent and legible. Variants from Egerton (Eg.) are given
at the foot of the page, but unimportant differences in ortho-
graphy are not taken note of. Th. stands for the Latin text
of Statius.

/

108 THE CELTIC EEVIEW

GAELIC TEXT

Aroile righ uasal oirmhuinnach onorach ro gabh for-
lamhus acus ferannus ar an ard-cathraigh n-aibinn n-alainn
. | . Teibh is in n-Greic dar ua comainn Laius. Acus is do sidhe
ro bo mac Eidhip. Acus is on Eidhip sin ro cinnset na da
mac aildi oiregda, . | . Polinices acus Etiocles. Acus is iat na
bratri sin ro marb a chele is in cathugud mor na Tiabhanta
acus na n-Grec ic cosnum righe na h-ard-cathrach na Teibhe
do cechtar leithi. Acht cena is ann sin tainic ar menmain
do Stait don aird-fhilid Frangach1 socinelach bunadh in-
drumin 2 na Tiabanta innus ro cinset o Caitim mac Aghenoir.
Acus is e an t-Aighenoir sin rop aird-righ na Tirde acus na
Sidondoine. Acus is aice ro ui in ingen socinelach dar ua
comainm Eoropa. Acus is di tuc lob in gradh n-dermair
co rob h-egin do tiachtain a richt tairbh da breith leis tar
muincinn mara acus mor-faircce. Acus o ro siacht dar in
muir sin cu Cred do chuaidh 'n a richt fen. Acus ro uai in
ingen sin aige co mor-gradach. Acus is don ingin sin tuc
lop in tir-f ocraicc n-adhbal . | . tres primrann in betha ainm-
niugud uaithi . j . Eoraip.

Agenoir umorro ro gabh fercc acus londus adhbal acus
toirrsi mor o fuair esbaid a ingine, Eoropa mor-gradhaighi.
Is i umorro comairle do rinne ann sin Aghenoir, a mac mor-
gradhach do cur ar fud mara acus tire do iaraidh a sheathar
uan doman. Acus is ed adbert ris muna fadhbad a shiair
can tiachtain a ris acus gan a facsin dosom.

Is ann sin umorro ro sirastar Caitim dingnada in domain
acus oilena ingantacha na h-aibheisi mor-aidhbhle timchellas
in bith. Acus fuair mor do dhuadh acus do dochar acus do
ghaibhthigh mara acus tire sechnon in domain iter muir acus
tir. Acus ni fuair in ingin ris in re sin, ger ces mor d'imnidh.
Acus is ed uadera sin nar fededh taidhecht i n-aigid loip
mic Shatruinn cend na n-dee a gradh goiti d'fis fair. Acus

1 One might be apt to infer from this epithet that the Gaelic version was made
from the old French version. But in that case the translator would like Chaucer take
the French form of Statius (Stace) and write not Stait but Stais. Besides the Gaelic
version is as different from the French version as both are from the Thebaid.

2 The reading is uncertain. Cf. indram> tinnrim Ir. Texte, iv. 2, Glossary.

THE THEBAID OF STATIUS 109

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

A certain noble, revered, and honourable king, Laius to
name, gained supremacy and rule over the pleasant and
beautiful chief city Thebes, in Greece. Oedipus was a son
of his. And from Oedipus there came the two handsome
and stately sons, Polynices and Eteocles. These brothers
slew each other in the great war between the Thebans and
the Greeks, contending on either side for the sovereignty of
the great city Thebes. Now the nobly born great Frankish
poet Statius undertook to trace the origin of the Thebans
and their descent from Cadmus the son of Agenor.1 This
Agenor was King of Tyre and Sidon, and was the father of
the noble maiden, Europa. It was this lady whom Jove
loved so greatly that he had to go in the shape of a bull to
carry her away over the surface of the sea and great ocean.
And when he reached Crete over that sea he assumed his
own shape. Jove cherished this lady, and greatly loved
her. He gave her the magnificent reward of naming one
of the three great divisions of the world after her, namely
Europe.

Now when Agenor came to know of the disappearance
of his much loved daughter, Europa, wrath and great fury
and sorrow took possession of him. He thereupon resolved
to send his beloved son over sea and land to search for his
sister throughout the world. And he told him if he could
not find his sister not to return nor see his face again.

Cadmus thereafter searched the strong places of the
continents, and the wonderful isles of the vast ocean which
circles the world. He encountered much danger and hard-
ship and peril by land and sea throughout the world both on
sea and land. But with all the sufferings he endured, he
did not find the maiden during all this time. And the
reason was that Jove son of Saturn, the head of the gods,
must not be crossed, nor his secret love revealed. Now

1 Cf. Th., i. 11. 5-6.

110 THE CELTIC REVIEW

o nach fuair-sim a shiair is i comairle do-s-rat in a menmain
tre na ghais dul co tempall Apaild dei na faistne d'iaraidh
fhessa acus eolus uadha cuith a roiphi in ingen. Acus is ed
adbert Apaild ris gan a sirthain, uair ni b-fuidhbedh, acht
eirgedh a mach a marach is in magh min-scothach maigh-
reidh mor-adhbal a mach. Acus taeceridh bo bendach
bith-alainn duit is in magh min-alainn sin. Acus len-sa
h-i no co n-luighe. Acus in baile a luighfea cumdaigter
letsa cathair caom cumdaehta, co muraibh mor-aibhle, acus
co tighibh righa ro farsenga, acus co griananaibh senmdhi
solus-glana co mad cathair ordan acus oirechtuis na n-Grec
in cathair sin, acus co mad e a h-ainm . | . Boetia no Tebae,
tren. inudh acus tren forgill in dei Apaild.

Ro an-sum ann sin. Acus ro gab itaidh, acus ro chuir
techtaire tarisi uadha ar cend dighe co sithil alainn
umaidhi co n-imdenum oir acus airgit umpi, co h-uamaidh
adbal imdorcha uai a comfogus do ar lar fualascaighi
coirneacdai1 acus tobar fir-alainn fonn-fuar ar a lar. O ro
siacht an techtaire do c(h)um na tibra acus tuc a sithil uan
usci, as ann sin tainic in nait(h)ir nemhnach a h-iartar na
h-uama co ceithri cennaibh mor-aidhbhle furri acus co tri
linibh fiacul in each cend fo leth acus co n-deilbh torathair o
h-iartar co h-6irther. .0 do conairc in techtaire os cinn
na tibraid tuc beim da glomraib an aen (f)echt cuige go ro
fagadh can anmain ann sin. O ro po fada iarum le Caitim
mac Agenoir ro ui a fer muinntire ro faidhestar fer eli da
munintir do c(h)um na h-uama, acus do c(h)um in usee,
acus tuc i naitir in aradhain cetna fair. Cidh tra acht caoca
oclach torchar da muinntir amlaidh sin. Is ann sin ro erigh
Caitim mac Aghenoir acus ro ghabh a ededh acus ro trealaim
a arma co m-bruth miled, co ferg leomain, co nemh natrach,
co dorus na h-uama da digail ar an ti ro marb a muinntir.
Acus o rainic adconnaic a natraigh n-digfrecra n-dimoir.
Agus do rinne sduagh luib moir di o iartar co h-6irtar amal
seol-crann lunga lan-aidhbhle. 0 t'eonnaire in fer mor
da h-innsaigh ro cathaighset ar aen ann sin co fuilech

1 This rare word appears later describing bows : for bogadaib caema cornectaib.

THE THEBAID OF STATIUS 111

when Cadmus did not find his sister, he wisely resolved to
go to the temple of Apollo, the god of prophecy, to ask from
him tidings and knowledge as to where the lady was. And
what Apollo said to him was not to seek for her, for he
would not find her, but to rise early on the morrow and to
go forth on the vast level, flower-covered plain. ' And
a great-horned cow of surpassing beauty will meet you in
that smooth, delightful plain. Follow that cow until she
lies down. And where the cow lies down, do thou build
a city, beautiful and shapely, with vast walls, with spacious
royal dwellings, and with bowers delightful and bright.
This city will become the city of honour and dignity of the
Greeks ; its name will be Bceotia or Thebae, and it will be
the great seat and abode of the god Apollo.'

Cadmus stayed there. A great thirst seized him, and
he sent a trusty messenger for a drink, with a beautiful
vessel of brass adorned with gold and silver, to a vast, very
dark cave in his neighbourhood, situated in the midst of a
dense (?) copse, with a fair and cool spring in the centre of it.
When the messenger reached the well and placed his vessel
in the water, a venomous serpent with four huge heads
upon it and with three rows of teeth in each head, and of
the appearance of a monster from head to tail, issued from
the depth of the cave. When the serpent saw the mes-
senger bending over the fountain it struck him at once with
its jaws and killed him there. When Cadmus the son of
Agenor wearied for the return of his servant, he sent another
to the cave for water, and the serpent treated him in the
same way. Now fifty of his valiant youths were put to
death in this manner. Then Cadmus son of Agenor be-
stirred himself. He donned his armour, grasped his
weapons, and with the fire of a soldier, the fury of a lion, and
the venom of a serpent, went to the mouth of the cave to
avenge himself upon the one that killed his people. When
he arrived he saw the huge, unappeasable monster. It
made a great arch of itself from head to tail, like the mast
of a huge ship. When it saw the big man approaching the

112 THE CELTIC BE VIEW

guinech crechtach cro-linntech ann sin, acus torchuir a
naitir fadheoidh, acus do chuaidh a nemh ar nemhfni.
Tanic-sum roime iar tain co tempoll Apaild. Acus ro
raidhset na dei ris ar do denam is in moigh ar marbad (n)a
nathrach, acus a siliud in air sin o fhiaclaibh na nathrach
ro eirgetar fir fon arm-ghaiscid ar in tulaigh. Ro treabh
in n-uir roimhe, acus do cathaighsit co feg feochair fercach
acus ro marbh each dib a cele acht aen cuiger nama. Acus is
les in cuiger sin ro cumdaighedh in Teibh maraen re Caitim
Mac Agenoir. Ba h-e oen aoirec^a in cuiger sin 1 . | . Echion
ro uoi a cumdach na Teibhe maraen re Caitim mac Aghenoir.

Cidh tra acht ro cumdaighedh in Teibh amlaidh sin re
Caitim mac Aghenoir. Acus ro uoi co soinmech setach
innte re re foda. Co (f )huair doinmed e uadheoidh, uair ro
soadh e fen acus a setigh2 an delbaibh natrach co cend secht
m-bliadan no co tainic craidhi na n-dei f orro uadeoidh, acus
co roighsit na 2 corpaibh fen iar sin. Acus is do shil innd
fhir sin ro chinsead na rig3 trom-glana Thiabanda uile.
Acus is da sil Eidip mac Lai. Acus ro bi in Lai h-i sin i
forlamus acus i fearandus na Teibe fri re fata. Acus is do
ro thinchansatar 4 f aidi acus druidi in tan atchifead neach
da chlaind gu nach biad a shaegal ni bud fhaiti, conid imi
sin do nithea gach duine claindi ro berthea do do mugugud
uili. Is and sin darala oenda fecht Edip mac Lai breith
don mor-rigain Iochasta. Acus rucad h-e iar m-breith co
coill commoir comfhaccais. Acus ro aithin a mathair gan
a malairt na (a) mugugud, acht a thocbhail i crand comard
comreid is in n-fhidbaid. Acus ra facbhad Eidip amlaid
sin, acus o ro facad h-e aenur ro gab a chuideran noeidean.5

Atchualaig imorro araile mac rig ro bai ar fogail acus ar
dibeirg in geran sin na noidean ar n-a cengul is in chrunn,
dar ba comainm Polipus ainm in gilla sin. Tanic in fer sin
remi d'indsaigid na naidean, acus adchondairc in naidin
is in n-ecendail6 ir-roibe. Tucastair grad n-dearmair do,

1 Two or three words deleted in MS.

2 Here the Edinburgh MS. (Fol. i. b 1) becomes legible. Henceforward the
Edinburgh text is followed, the more important variants of the Egerton version being
given at the foot.

3 righa. 4 terchansatar. 6 a caidheran andidhin. 6 cengaZ is.

THE THEBAID OF STATIUS 113

two fought there a bloody, fierce, wound-giving, gory fight.
The serpent fell eventually, and its venom became of none
effect. Cadmus then went to the temple of Apollo, and
the gods told him to till the ground where the serpent was
slain, and upon sowing it with the teeth of the serpent
men in their warlike weapons would appear upon the knoll.
He ploughed the mould; [the men appeared] and fought
keenly, fiercely, and angrily, until the one slew the other,
save only five. It was these five who along with Cadmus
the son of Agenor built Thebes. It was the great leader
of the five, Echion, who assisted Cadmus son of Agenor in
building Thebes.

Thus was Thebes founded by Cadmus son of Agenor.
And he dwelt there prosperous and wealthy for a long
time. Eventually misfortune overtook him ; for both he
and his wife were changed into the shape of serpents
during the space of seven years, until the hearts of the
gods relented, when they were restored to their own bodily
shapes again. Now it was from the seed of this man that
all the illustrious kings of Thebes sprung. And of his
seed was Oedipus son of Laius. Now this Laius held
supremacy and rule in Thebes for a long time. It was
to him that prophets and wizards foretold that his life
would come to an end whenever he would see a child of his.
Because of this he was wont to destroy every child born to
him. Then it came to pass that Oedipus son of Laius was
brought forth by the great queen Jocasta. After his birth
(the infant) was carried to a great wood near by. His
mother ordered that he should not be slain nor destroyed,
but that he should be placed in a tall, branchless tree in
the wood. Oedipus was left thus, and being alone he gave
utterance to his infant wail.

Now a certain king's son named Poly bus, who was
prowling and plundering abroad, heard the infant's plaint
as he was fastened in the tree. He approached and observed
the plight in which the child was. He conceived a great
love for the babe, carried it away, and reared and nurtured

VOL. VII. h

114 THE CELTIC EEVIEW

acus rue leis e da aileamain acus da altrom amail mac
m-bunaid do fen. Is and sin gabastair Polius rigi a thiri
acus a thalman fen. Acus tucastar rigdamnacht a fheraind
don mac ro leasaiged aicci .|. do Edip mac Lai. Is and sin
dorala don Eidip sin tecmaill co h-anbuinidi anurlum for
f eachtus in a deagaid sin i cend a athar Lai. Acus ni fhiter
Lai comad h-e Eidip tecmad do, acus ni fhiter imorro Eidip
commad h-e a athair Lai tachrad do. Et bai each dib ac
iarraid a sloindti uar a chele, acus ni dearnaid neach dib
a slondud da chele. Ro fhearadar comlonn feochair fearg-
ach ann sin, acus torchair a athair Lai le h-Eidip tre
ainbfhis acus aneolus.

Et ro gob Eidip fearand a athar, acus tucastair a mathair
do chaem-chele chomadais ar n-gabail rigi do. Acus ni
fhiter-sium sin1 cein no co tarla menmna na rigna Iochassta
ar troichthib2 comnochta in rig ,|. Eidib, uair is amlaid
ro badar acus toll tre ceachtarde dib. Iarfaiges in rigan,

* Oid ro treththoll do troichthi ? ' ar (s)i an sin. ' Nmsa,' ar
se. ' Is amlaid frith me ar lar na fidbaide i crund ro ard is
in choill acus clo cechtar a dam chois ac om congbail3 is in
chrunn, acus4 nad frithar cia no-m-coraid mo ban samla
sin. Acht ro-m-ailead acus ro-m-altromad ac Polipus
amail mac do fen. Acus nad fed 5 ... sin indissi dam
mar fuair me. Acus as e ni do roinnus dul chom Apaill,
dea na faistine, acus a iarfaidig de c'ait a buigbind6 m'athair-
thir. Raidis Apaill rimsa gan mo slondug do denam do
en duine acus (an) cet fher tecemad dam and comlonn do chur
ris acus ba 7 gebaind fis m' athar 8 thrit sin. Acus is e cet
fer dorala cucum asaithli sin .|. Laius ar sechron no
a selga ac on chathraig ac Potchis, acus do rochair limsa e
mar adchualabair sin.' ' Truag am sin,' ar si Iochosta,

* ro be tra in Laius sin th'athair-siu, acus is misi do mathair.
Acus is me ro aithin do chengul is in chrunn gan da marbad

1 a ghenelach. 2 cosaib. *

3 cengaZ. 4 nach fedar cia ro-m-coraidh amlaidh sin.

5 MS. indistinct. Eg. reads : nach fuar-sa nar uo h-edh cein n6 cor h-aithisg-
edh mhe ann, acus co n-ebradh rim mo beth im thurcaire thuili can ffs m'athar no mo
mathar. D'fiarfai<ras do Pholipus nar ied sin innisid dam. c fuighinn.

7 do. 8 Eg. adds : acus fis mo mathar.

THE THEBAID OF STATIUS 115

it as if it were his own child. Thereafter Polybus became
king of his own country and land, and he gave the regency
to Oedipus, son of Laius, the boy who was brought up by
him. Thereafter it chanced that on a certain occasion
Oedipus unfortunately and unluckily met his father Laius.
Neither knew who the other was. Each asked the other
to declare his name and kindred, and neither would do
so. Then the two fought a fierce and angry duel, when his
father Laius fell by the hand of Oedipus through want of
knowledge and ignorance.

Oedipus now took possession of his father's territory,
and his mother was given to him as a fitting and loving
spouse. He was not aware of the fact until Queen
Jocaste's attention was drawn to King Oedipus' s bare feet,
with a hole through each of them. The queen asked :
' How is it that your feet are bored thus ? ' said she. ' Easy
to tell,' replied he. ' Thus was I found in the centre of the
wood, in a very tall tree in the forest, with a nail through
each of my two feet fastening me to the tree, and I have
not discovered who it was that fixed me up in that fashion.
But I was reared and nurtured by Polybus as a son of his
own. And I did not know that it was not so until I was
reproached upon the matter, and people began to say that
I was an offcast of the flood, not knowing who my father
and mother were. I inquired of Polybus, but he was not
permitted to tell me how he found me. And what I did
was to go to Apollo, the god of prophecy, and ask of him
where I could find my native land. Apollo told me to tell
my name to no man, but to fight the first man who met me,
and by this means that I would know who my father was.
The first man whom I met thereafter was Laius astray or
following the chase near the city Phocis, and he was slain
by me as you have already heard.' ' Alas ! that that is
so,' said Jocasta, £ for that Laius was your father, and I am
your mother. And it was I, because of my great love for
you, that ordered you not to be slain but tied in the tree.
And I have borne these four children to you — Eteocles and

116 THE CELTIC BE VIEW

ar met do grada. Acus is me rue in cethrur cloindi-sea dit . | .
Ethiocles acus Polenitces, Anntigone acus Ismene an da
ingin.' ' Durson damsa,' ar Eidip, ' geneamain acus na
mignima sin do denam dam, gid tre anfhis acus aneolus do
rala iat.' Is and sin imorro tuc Eidip da da laim in oen
fheaeht ceachtar a da shul acus ro bean as a chind iat, ar
bithin gun nar an aiced-sun1 neach, ar met a naire a
h-aithli na mor-chol sin do denam do co na faictis sluaig
no sochaide h-e.

Imthus imorro da mac Eidip . | . Eothiocles acus Polenices.
Ro eirig tnuth acus tren-chosnum eturu im rigi na Tebe, gu
nar fhaem neach dib comroind na cathrach na in chiniuda
d'aroile d'eis dallta a n-athar. Ni thucsad onoir na h-uaisli
da n-athair, acht ro badar fein co diumsach droch-aicentach
a caithim an atharde acus ind (fh)eraind, acus adar le gach
mac dib ba h-e fen bid ri ann.

Dala imorro Eidip ar sin. Ro bai co dubach do-menm-
nach in uam-thig thalman gan rigi gan ro-flaithius, ar n-a
malairt acus ar n-a mugugud do fhen. Is ann sin do rigne
Eidip lam-chomairt moir acus doinnsi2 no olochta cosna
deib aduathmaraib ifrrenaide, acus co Teissifone cus sin
m-ban-dea n-(d)eamnaig n-(d)asachtaig do sonrud. Acus
is ed so adrubairt : ' Ro ailis misi acus ro altrumais co
n-dernes ulca imda ilerda tre t'aslach acus tre t'adanugud
co ro marbus m'athair crin cian-aesta ac in chatraig dianaid
comainm Foiccida. Acus ro thuaslucud tre t'(fh)or(t)acht-
sa cesta doilgi di-thuaslaicthi in torathair diar ba comainm
Spinx. Acus is e in torathar sin ro bai i tir na Tiabanda.
Acus is e ro fiarf aidead do gach oen tecmad da indsaigi 3 ca
de in anmanna 4 cetharchosta, dechosta, trechosta. Acus in
te na tuaslucud 5 ar in ceist do ro marbad sin uile iad, cein no
co ranac-sa da indsaigid in tan ro ba ac iaraid m'athar.
Acus ro fhiarf aid in torathar na ceasta cetna damsa. Acus
adrubart-sa ris cor b'e in duine sin, uair ceathar chosach h-e
in a naideanntacht . | . con a da chois acus con (a) da laim in
en fheaeht ac imluad dho ; de chosta, imorro, inn a ocuacht-

1 cu nach faiced-san. 2 toirsi. 3 MS. indsaigig,

4 an t-ainmidh. 5 fuaslucud.

THE THEBAID OF STATIUS 117

Polynices, and the two daughters Antigone and Ismene.'
1 Woe is me ! ' said Oedipus, ' for my birth and the misdeeds
which I have done, though they have happened through
want of knowledge and ignorance.' Thereupon Oedipus
seized his two eyes in his two hands and plucked them out
of his head, so that he might never see man again, and that
neither hosts nor multitudes would see him, because of the
great shame he felt after committing these great crimes.

Now as to Eteocles and Polynices, the two sons of
Oedipus. After their father became blind there arose envy
and great rivalry between them regarding the sovereignty
of Thebes, so that neither of them would consent to
share the rule of the city or of the people with the other.
They paid no respect or reverence to their father ; both
squandered heedlessly and recklessly their patrimony and
substance, and each son of them deemed himself the king.

With respect to Oedipus : he lived in darkness and
gloom as if in a cave of the earth, without sovereignty or
dominion, having by his own act destroyed and deprived
himself of both.1 It was then he made an urgent and
heart-rending appeal to the dread gods of hell and to the
devilish, furious goddess Tisiphone especially. And this
is what he said : ' You have so reared and nurtured me
that by your seduction and incitation, I have committed
many and numerous evil deeds, and have slain my decrepit
and very aged father at the city of Potchis. And it was by
your aid I solved the difficult, insoluble riddle of the monster
called Sphinx. This monster at one time was in the terri-
tory of Thebes. And he used to ask every person that
came his way what animal was it that was four-footed,
two-footed, and three-footed. And those who could not
solve this riddle he slew, until I came his way when seeking
my father. The monster put the same riddle to me. I
replied that man was the animal, inasmuch as in his infancy
he went about on his two feet and two hands, and was thus
four-footed ; but in his youth and manhood he was two-

1 Cf. Th., i. 1. 46, et seq.

118 THE CELTIC REVIEW

baid1 .|. acus ina ferrdacht, a da chois amain aicci ac im-
theacht ; tre chosta, imorro, e in a seanntacht acus in a
sheanordacht .|. a da chois acus a lorg aicci ac imthecht.
Acus o ro thaimniges 2 in chesta sin ro fer-sum comlond
feig fuireochair fearamail acus torchair in torathar de sin
fadeoid.' Is ann sin imorro adrubairt Eidip : ' Is tre
t'(fh)ortacht-su acus tre t'(fh)oirithin do rignus na gnima
sin. Agus ro marbus m'athair, acus ro thoirrchius mo
mathair. Acus is tre th'adanduo-su ro beanus mo rose
leathan-glas lind-fhuar as mo chind. Acus duisig-siu
iarum rich feirgi feochraigi iter mo macaib-sa .|. Etiocles
acus Polinices, co ro dluiget 3 acus co ro dian-scaileat in
flaithius co na roibi ceandacht no commus ac neach dar
aile dib. Uair ro linastair diummus acus droch ciall iat
tres in n-(d)imiad acus tres in n-(d)imiccin tucsad damsa
ar mo beth dall dorcha i n-uam-thig thalman'.

0 t'chualaich imorro Tessifone na briathra sin Eidip, is
ann sin ro eirig in Fhuir demnach dasachtach con a trillsib
do nathrachaib nemnecha im a ceann ac siangail acus ic
sibsanaig acus ic feadgaire acus ac foluaimniged acus ac
sugud in t-shrotha tibrechtaich teindtigi dar ua comainm
Cosidon, daig is in n-immel-bordaib in t-shrotha sin ro bid
a h-ait acus a h-adba. Is ann sin ro lingeastair si co dian
deinmnedach dasachtach on t-sruth, amal saignen tincurach
teindtigi, no amal retlaind luath lasamuin na firmaminti
foluaimnigi. Acus is ead so sligi tanic tres na daescar-
shluagaib disciri dimaine deamnacda, ocus tres na
h-airechtaib aduana 4 etlaide do anmannaib batar in n-grian-
brogaib5 ifMnd, co ra gabastair grain acus ecla adbul iad
ic faicsin a dreichi deanmaige duaibsigi na baidbi bruth-
maire bell-deirgi tanic si rempi sin. Et ar sin dar dorus
n-urbadach n-ifrrind a mach . | . dar Tenair. Et o do riacht
tanic fordorchud tar dreich talman uile amal aidchi, cor'
(gab) uaman acus imecla lucht na crich(i) 6 acus na cenda-
dach 6 rempi. Acus tanic si ar sin is in sligid suaichnid
saineamail ar fan-glenntaib slebemail co toracht co Teib.

1 occuaintaidh. 2 aithnighus. 3 dluigset.

4 adhubhannda. 5 MS. brodaib. 6 Eg. omits.

THE THEBAID OF STATIUS 119

footed, walking on his two feet only ; while again in his
old age and feebleness he was three-footed, moving on his
two feet and his staff. Now when I answered that question
we two fought a fierce, wary, and manly duel, in which the
monster fell at last.' Oedipus further said : ' I did these
deeds by your aid and assistance. I slew my father and
caused my mother to conceive. And at your instigation
I plucked my broad-gray, liquid-cool eyes out of my head.
And now do you arouse an angry and bitter feud between
my sons, Eteocles and Polynices, that they may sunder and
ruin the dominion, and that neither may control or restrain
the other. For pride and evil thoughts have filled their
minds because of the dishonour and disrespect they have
heaped upon me who am dark and blind, living in an earth-
cave.'

Now * when Tisiphone heard these words of Oedipus the
devilish, mad Fury rose up with her tresses of venomous
serpents around her head shrieking and hissing, and whist-
ling and fluttering, and draining the flowing, fiery stream
called Oocytes, for it was on the banks of that stream her
place and abode were. She sprung vehemently, hastily,
furiously from the stream like a shooting, fiery thunderbolt,
or like a swift, flaming star in the quivering sky. This was
the path she took through the fierce, idle, fiendish rabble,
and through the shrieking, restless hosts of souls inhabiting
the gravelly abodes of hell. Horror and great fear seized
these when they saw the devilish, dark look of that furious,
red-lipped fury. She proceeded forth through Taenarus,
the baleful gate of hell. When she did so great darkness
covered the face of the whole earth like night, and the
inhabitants of these territories and districts greatly feared
and trembled before her. She then proceeded by the well-
known, conspicuous road over hill and glen to Thebes'.
Then one hundred venomous, virulent serpents with
peaked and pointed heads formed about her head. Her
dark-grey coloured eyes sunk and were absorbed in the

1 Th., i. 1. 88, et seq.

120 THE CELTIC EEVIEW

Is ann sin ro eirgedar cet nathraeh neimneach naimdidi
co m-beandaib acus birinib im a cend. Ro suiged acus ro
sluiged a rose dathach dub-glas i n-imdomain i cind acus a
ceand mullaich. Is and sin ro eirig acus ro chraith in
nathraig nemnig ro bai in a laim ar na sluagaib, cu clos a
fogar acus a breasmaidm ua cheathar airdib na Grecci .|.
co sliab Barnais ar n-airthiur acus co sruth n-Eorait iar
n-iartar acus co sliab n-alaind Oeten iar n-descert ocus co
h-eochair-bordaib Isimos iar tuaiscert. Acus da riacht
sin co deiligthech derrscaithech dermar cos in ciniud
croda cosnumach tnudach Tiabannda, acus co macaib
ai(d)bli ailli Eidip ,|. Ethiocles acus Polinices, co ra erig
fich marthanach acus im(fh)ormad adbul imon flaithius iter
na da mac sin tre aslach Tesifone amal da tharb trena
thuath-meara thuathacha 1 ua chuing adbail imfhulaing,
co ra leansat acus co ra lagaigset a cengail acus a cuibrigi
ac imchosnum acus ac imthairring fri araile.

Imthusa imorro na Tiabanda. Nir faelsatar imchosnum
na da mac sin immon flaithius. Acus is i comairli ro chind-
sed ann sin rigi gach re m-bliadna do gach mac dib, acus cert
crandchair do denum eturra cia dib da roised in rigi ar tus.
Acus do rignead amlaid sin. Et ro siacht do Ethiocles in
rigi a cirt chrannchair ri h-ead na bliadna sin, acus Polenices
ar echtra acus ar indarba ri sin. O ro cindead imorro in
chomairli sin ac in popul adbul Ecionda, ro gab imthnuth
acus emiltus iat ris in rig ac a rabatar, acus tanic sere acus
sir-inmaine doib innd fir ro bai ar echtra acus ar indarba
uathib . | . Polinices. Is and sin imorro adubairt araile fear
soim saidhbir so-chenelach do'n chiniud throm-glan Tia-
banda gu n-ar ba choir don popul tren togaide fechtasugud
a flaithiusa iter na rigaib oca utmalla. ' Oir is e ar samail-
na ma(r) bis long luchtmar lan-adbul occ a tuargan o dib
gaethaib contrardaib co n-a fitir cia2 gaeth ris a rachad.
Uair is adbul a imnedh 3 acus a eccomnart duind beith ua
rigi acus ua rig-smacht 3 in rig ac buileam 4 . | . Ethiocles ; ua
tamach acus ua tomaitheam in rig araill . | . Polinices.

(To be continued.)

1 thnuthacha. 2 MS. acus ; Eg. cia. 3 MS. indistinct. 4 fuilmid.

THE THEBAID OF STATIUS 121

depths of her head and skull. Then she rose and shook
the venomous serpent in her hand over the people, so
that the noise and crash were heard over the whole of
Greece, to Mount Parnassus in the east, and to the river
Eurotas in the west, and to the beautiful Mount Oete in the
south, and to the banks of (the river) Isthmos in the north.
And (the sound) reached specially, distinctly, and in full
force, the valiant, contentious, and stern Theban race, and
Eteocles and Polinices, the renowned and distinguished
sons of Oedipus. A lasting feud and great jealousy re-
garding the sovereignty took possession of these two sons
through the enticement of Tsiphone. Like they were to two
mighty, furious, intractable bulls, under a strong, unyielding
yoke, which strained and loosened their bands and cords
as they tugged and pulled the one against the other.

As to the Thebans,1 they could not endure the contentions
of the two youths regarding the sovereignty. So they re-
solved that the kingship should be given to each of them
every alternate year, and to cast a true lot as to who should
reign the first year. They acted accordingly. The king-
ship fell by fair lot to Etiocles during that year, while
Polinices was to leave the country as an exile. After the
mighty Theban people had thus resolved, great distrust
and discontent seized them against the king who ruled over
them, and love and permanent regard towards Polinices,
the outcast and exile. It was then that a certain rich,
wealthy, nobly-born man of the distinguished Theban stock
said that the mighty, excellent people ought to settle
the rule of the country between these young, unstable
kings : ' For we are in the position of a well-equipped, huge
ship, tossed about by two contrary winds, unable to decide
which wind to sail by. For it is a vast anxiety, and a source
of weakness to us to be under the rule and sway of our
present king, Etiocles; it would be restful to have the
domination of the other, Polinices.

(To be continued.)

1 Th., i. 1. 138.

122 THE CELTIC REVIEW

THE PICTISH RACE AND KINGDOM

James Ferguson

[Continued from p. 36.)

The most remarkable feature in the usages of the Picts
was their system of succession to the throne, and indeed to
property in land, if not all succession, through the mother.
It powerfully contributed to their downfall as a separate
race, and facilitated the process by which they were amalga-
mated with the Scots, and their own dynasty and name
superseded. In no case does a son succeed his father.
As in the Irish law of Tanistry brother might succeed
brother, but beyond that, when, as Bede says, ' ubi res
pervenerit in dubium9> the succession passed to the sons of
sisters, or to the nearest male relation on the female side
and through a female. The most common names of the
kings never appear as those of fathers, and the fathers
appear to have been men of another race or of another tribe.
Thus the father of Brude Mac Bile was a British king of
Strathclyde, Talorcan Mac Ainfrait was the son of Eanfred,
the fugitive heir of the Saxon kingdom of Northumbria.
Alpin, the father of Kenneth, who was killed in asserting
his right, was the son of the Scottish Eochaidh, and, accord-
ing to the chroniclers of Fergusia, daughter of Hungus, king
of the Picts. The name of the greatest of the Pictish kings,
Angus Mac Fergus, suggests that his father may have been
a Scot, and that his conquest of Dalriada was not a racial
triumph of the Picts. The custom must have arisen among
a people of loose morals, such as Caesar heard the people of
the interior of Britain were, and the Caledonii and Meatae
were described by Dio. It is perhaps more than a coinci-
dence that to this day alike in the north-eastern Lowlands
and in Galloway, the regions of old occupied by the Picts

THE PICTISH RACE AND KINGDOM 123

furnish the largest statistics of illegitimate births. This law
of succession was in force throughout the whole of the Pictish
monarchy with only three apparent exceptions in its later
days. The first was the accession of Talorgan son of Angus,
in 780, who, if he was the son of Angus Mac Fergus, followed
three intervening kings. The second was when Drust, the
son of Constantin, succeeded Angus Mac Fergus, who had
succeeded his brother Constantin Mac Fergus, and the third
when Eoganan son of Angus succeeded in 836. In all these
cases the names of the elder kings suggest a Scottish father,
and it has been thought that the latter Mac Ferguses belonged
to the same family as the previous Angus and Brude Mac
Fergus. It is obvious how the personal right of a king of
foreign blood would tend to be converted into a more per-
manent tenure of the throne by his family. There was
nothing contrary to Pictish feeling in a family of foreign male
descent being on the throne, and it only required sufficient
strength on the part of a king, succeeding in right of his
mother, to alter the succession to males and establish it in
his family. Other competitors might arise with more or less
tenable claims, but if they were successfully defeated, the
transition to the new order would be easy. This is in fact
what happened after the accession of Kenneth Macalpin, and
the precise moment when the formal change was accom-
plished is perhaps indicated by the statement in the Pictish
Chronicle that in the time of his brother and successor
Donald ' the Gael established with their king in Forteviot
the rights and laws of Edus (Aedfin) son of Ecdach,' one of
the previous kings of the Dalriad Scots.

The other outstanding feature of the Pictish state was
its organisation in seven great provinces, each of them
consisting of two divisions. A tract of the twelfth century
states that the territory called successively Albania, Pictavia
and Scotia was in ancient times divided by seven brethren
into seven parts. The principal part was Angus and Mearns,
the second Athole and Gowrie, the third Strathearn and
Menteith, the fourth Fife and Fothreve, the fifth Mar and

124 THE CELTIC REVIEW

Buchan, the sixth Murray and Ross, and the seventh
Caithness as cis-montane and ultramontane. Each province
had a subprovince within it, and these seven brothers were
seven kings, having seven sub-kings under them. The
brothers are just eponymi of the people of seven provinces,
but the death of a Rex Athf oyla, a king of Atholl, is recorded
in 739.

One characteristic set of memorials of their race appear
to have been left by the Picts to later times. This is the
remarkable type of earlier sculptured stone, which is found
only in the regions known to have belonged to them, and in
greatest numbers in Aberdeenshire and Angus. The older
stones at any rate, on which the simpler figures of the
crescent, the sceptre, the spectacle ornament, the mirror, the
lamp, the serpent, the arch or horseshoe, the elephant, and
the fish are found alone, or with subsequently inscribed
crosses, appear to date from Pictish times. Those which
have more elaborate crosses and figures of war and the chase,
etc., may be of later date and show the impress of Scottish
influence ; but while there are reasons to connect some with
later events, it is impossible to draw a definite line, and there
can be no reasonable doubt that many of those ancient
sculptured stones, and the stone circles once so numerous
in many parts of Pictavia, were the work of the old Pictish
people.

The Picts of Galloway, who retained the name of their
race longest, were the first Christianised, for Ninian was
engaged on the building of Whithern when he received the
news of the death of St. Martin of Tours in 397, before the
termination of Roman rule in Britain. He and his disciples
carried the faith into the territories of the southern Picts ;
but the result of the invasions of the Pagan Saxons, of the
existence of a Pagan party among the Britons, and of the
general confusion and prevalent Paganism among the
Picts, was what the monkish writers call an apostasia in the
regions where the opposing races met, and the practical
disappearance of Christianity in the land of the Picts.

THE PICTISH RACE AND KINGDOM 125

Yet Whithern or Candida Casa remained for long a centre of
light for south-western Scotland. The people called the
Attacotti, a tribe of the country between the walls, appear
among the assailants of the Roman province, are credited
with eating human flesh and are described as more fierce
than even the Scots or the Picts from the north. After the
reconquest they were enrolled in the Roman armies, and it
has been thought that they may have been Galwegians.
There appears to be no foundation for the assertion of
Chalmers that Galloway was colonised in the eighth century
by Cruithne from Ireland. The Sarran who, according to
the Book of Ballymote, established his power over Saxons
and Picts, married Babona, daughter of Lorn son of Ere,
and after victory and triumph ' died in the House of Martain
about 440,' appears to have ruled over Galloway, and was
succeeded by his son Leurig, while the other Cairnech, at
whose instigation Leurig was killed, was Abbot of Whithern.
The Drust who had ' one perfect daughter Dustric,' who was
taught to read by St. Mugint ' in Futerna,' appears to have
been a king of the Picts of Galloway, and probably one of
the two Drusts who reigned from 523 to 528, it being not
improbable that where two kings are recorded as reigning
together one was a king of the Galloway Picts. Galam
Cennaleph is recorded as reigning one year with Brude, and
the death of Cendalaedh in 580, he probably being a king
of the Galloway Picts of whom the local topography retains
traces. At a later period there seems to have been a close
connection between the dynasty of the Argyllshire Scots
and Galloway, probably due to some matrimonial relation-
ship with consequent claims. Thus Eochaidh Buidhe, the
son of Aidan, is found handing over Dalriada to his son,
departing to Galloway, and fighting in Ireland with a Pictish
force, while the Annals of Ulster record his death as king of
the Picts in 627. In 741 Alpin Mac Eochaidh, after failure
in his attempts on the Pictish throne in the north, is killed
in Galloway ; and it appears to have been from Galloway
that Kenneth, the son of the later Alpin, emerged to re-

126 THE CELTIC EEVIEW

conquer Dalriada, and to finally ascend the Pictish throne
of Scone.

The dominion of the Angles of Northumbria, established
over the whole of southern Scotland in the middle of the
seventh century by Oswy, lasted longer in Galloway than
elsewhere, and was probably rendered easier by the close
connection of Whithern with the church of Northumbria.
It ceased about the end of the eighth century, when the
bishopric, founded in 727, disappeared with the last Saxon
bishop in 796. The Galloway Picts agreed better with
their Saxon overlords than with their neighbours the
Britons, who couple them as hostile : —

1 Angles and Galwyddel
Let them make war.'

And in later times they fraternised with the Norwegians,
joining in their piratical expeditions. They are called
Gallgaidhael, or stranger Gaels by the Irish, and are
described as ' the foster children of the Norsemen,' and as
4 a people who had renounced their baptism and had the
customs of the Northmen.' Yet, with all their adaptability
to Saxon and Teutonic conditions, the population of the
inland districts at heart remained Celtic, frequent insurrec-
tions, under Fergus and other local chiefs, gave trouble to
the Scottish kings, and down to the time of Robert the
Bruce the Galwegians could claim the privilege of trial
under the Laws of Galloway.

The main events in the history of the kingdom of the
Picts north of the Forth may be shortly summarised. The
Pictish Chronicle, of which two versions exist, one appar-
ently connected with Brechin and one with Abernethy,
gives a long list of monarchs from the original Cruithne to
the time of Kenneth M'Alpine. It is with Brude Mac
Maelchon that definite historic ground is touched, but prior
to that three traditions ought to be noticed, especially in
view of Bede's statement that the southern Picts were
converted by Ninian. Thus it is said that in the nineteenth

THE PICTISH RACE AND KINGDOM 127

year of Drust son of Erp, who reigned a hundred years and
fought a hundred battles, St. Patrick went to Ireland, and
this monarch is thus made contemporary with the continuous
fighting that followed the departure of the legions. He
was succeeded by Talorc, and he by his brother Nectan
Morbet, whom two traditions associate with localities in
Pictland. One relates that when a fugitive from his brother
in Ireland he consulted St. Bridget, who foretold that he
would return and possess the kingdom in peace, in conse-
quence of which, after receiving Darlugdach, Abbess of
Kildare, he founded the church of Abernethy in honour of
St. Bridget. The other tells that St. Boethius or Buitte
of Ulster, returning from Rome, landed in the territory of
the Picts, and finding that Nectan their king had just
departed this life, restored him to life, when the king
bestowed on him the fort or camp in which the miracle
had been performed. The church of Kirk.baddo in Angus
is situated within the remains of a Roman camp, and
preserves the name of the Irish saint, while Dunnichen or
the Fort of Nechtan is not far distant. To kings of whom
only the name remains succeeded Brude Mac Mailchon, • a
most powerful king reigning over the Picts,' whose attacks
on the Dalriad Scots were not without influence on the
actions of St. Columba, and who was found and converted
by the saint in his fort and palace on the banks of the
river Ness. He is said to have reigned thirty years, and
probably concurred with the king of the Scots in the grant
of Iona on the extremity of the border line between their
territories, while the foundations dedicated to Columba
and his nephew Drostan show the extent to which they
carried Christianity among his subjects in Buchan, Angus,
and Atholl. Brude died in 584, and the end of the century
shows the Picts a Christian people, owing allegiance to the
rule of Iona, and at peace with the Dalriad Scots. Then
follow as kings, Gartnaidh, Nectan, grandson of Werd,
Ciniod, son of Luchtren. A battle in 617 among the
Northumbrian Saxons, in which Aeduin defeated and slew

128 THE CELTIC REVIEW

Aethelfrid, powerfully affected the future history. Aethel-
frid's sons took refuge, Eanfrid, the eldest, with the Picts,
and Oswald at Iona, where he was baptized by the Columban
monks. The victor Aeduin took Edinburgh, to which he
is said to have given his name, though it really seems to
be an adaptation of the earlier Cymric Dineiddyn and
Gaelic Dun Edin, from the Britons or Picts, and extended
Anglic rule over the Picts south of the Forth. Eanfrid
married a Pictish princess, and their son succeeded to the
Pictish throne. After the defeat and slaughter of Aeduin
by Penda of Mercia and the British Caedwalla, Eanfrid
took possession of his father's kingdom, renounced Chris-
tianity, and was soon after killed. In 635 a battle was
fought among the Picts at Seguise (Dalguise on the Tay).
In 654 Oswy, who had succeeded his brother Oswald as
king of Northumbria, defeated and killed Penda of Mercia,
the great enemy of his house, and thereafter reduced the
Britons of Strathclyde and the Scots of Dalriada to the
position of tributaries. Not only so, but in 657, when
Talorcan Mac Ainfrit, King of the Picts, died, Oswy, who
was his cousin or uncle, and may have claimed as his heir
according to Saxon ideas, subjected the greater part of the
Picts to the dominion of the Angles. This dominion lasted
for thirty years, and extended over the southern Picts.
During its existence, the Angles, at the Council of Whitby
in 664, adopted the Roman in preference to the Columban
rule, and established the diocese of York, which was admini-
stered as far over the Picts as king Oswy's dominions
extended. Oswy having been succeeded by Ecgfrid, an
attempt in 672 by ' the bestial people of the Picts,' as the
biographer of Bishop Wilfrid terms them, to recover their
independence failed, the monastery of Abercorn was
founded, and in 681 an additional Bishop, Trumuin, was
appointed over the province of the Picts. Shortly after
the Picts appear under a sovereign of the name of Bredei
son of Bile, his father being a king of the Strathclyde
Britons, and his mother a daughter of Talorcan Mac Ainfrit.

THE PICTISH EACE AND KINGDOM 129

He is found reducing Dunbeath in Caithness, laying waste
the Orkney Islands, and by 681 had advanced south of the
Mounth and besieged Dunottar. He seems to have been
assisted by the Scots. In 685 Ecgfrid, according to Bede,
led an army to ravage the province of the Picts, and the
enemy feigning a retreat, he was led into the straits of
inaccessible mountains and slain with the greatest part of
his force. This battle, called by the Saxons Nechtansmere,
and by the Gael Dun Nechtain, appears to have been
fought at Dunnichen in Angus, where sepulchral remains
are numerous, and where there was till recently a loch
called the Mire of Dunnichen. It is recorded in the lines
of Riagal of Bangor : —

' This day Bruidhe fights a battle for the land of his grandfather,
Unless the Son of God will otherwise he will die in it ;
This day the son of Ossa was killed in battle with green swords,
Although he did penance he shall lie in Hi after his death ;
This day the son of Ossa was killed, who had the black drink,
Christ heard our supplications, they spared Bruidhe the brave.'

The result was far-reaching. Bishop Trumuin fled from
Abercorn, which was too near the border of the recovered
territories to be safe, and ' from that time,' says Bede,
' the hopes and strength of the Anglic kingdom began to
fluctuate and to retrograde, for the Picts recovered the
territories belonging to them which the Angles had held,
and the Scots who were in Britain and a certain part of the
Britons recovered their liberty.' A quaint tradition is told
of the death of Bruidhe seven years later. His body was
taken to Iona, and watched through the night by Adamnan.
1 Next day when the body began to move and to open its
eyes a certain devout man came to the door of the house and
said, " If Adamnan' s object be to raise the dead, I say he
should not do so, for it will be a degradation to every cleric
who shall succeed to his place, if he too cannot raise the
dead." " There is somewhat of right in that," said Adam-
nan, " therefore, as it is more proper, let us give our blessing
to the body and to the soul of Bruidhe." ' He was succeeded

VOL. VII. i

130 THE CELTIC BEVIEW

by Taran, he by Brude Mac Derili, and he by Nechtan Mac
Derili, and fighting went on with the Saxons, the Picts of
the plain of Manann, the region south of the Forth and west
of the Avon, unsuccessfully endeavouring to throw off the
Saxon yoke.

Early in the eighth century, however, a remarkable
change took place. The two Gaelic nations, the Picts and
Scots, had hitherto been on friendly terms for over a century,
and united in adherence to the Columban form of Christi-
anity. But in the time of Nectan Mac Derili, the Legend of
St. Boniface relates his landing in the Forth and arrival at
Restinoth in Pictavia, where the king received from him the
sacrament of baptism. Bede tells us that in 710, Naitan,
king of the Picts, led by frequent study of the ecclesiastical
writings, renounced the error he and his nation had till then
held as to the observance of Easter, sought assistance from
the Angles and obtained a letter from Ceolfrid, Abbot of
Jarrow, and architects to build a church after the Roman
manner ; that the clergy adopted the coronal tonsure, and
that the Pictish nation was placed under the protection of St.
Peter, the most blessed prince of the Apostles. The locality
of the scene which Bede describes is believed to have been
the Mote-hill of Scone, known afterwards as the Hill of
Belief, or Caislen Credi. A few years later, in 717, Nectan
took the strong step of expelling the Columban clergy and
driving them across Drumalban into the territories of the
Scots, and in 724 he retired to the cloister, from which,
however, he again emerged to take an unsuccessful part in
the dynastic struggle into which his retirement had plunged
his country. The competitors were Drust, who first suc-
ceeded Nectan, Alpin, son of Eochaidh, paternally a Scot
of the royal line of Dalriada and brother of Eochaidh, who
carried on the Dalriad line, whose name is Pictish and must
have claimed through a Pictish mother, Nectan himself,
and Angus Mac Fergus, who seems specially identified with
the province of Fortrenn, though his name suggests paternal
Scottish descent. Angus first defeated Alpin at Monagh

THE PICTISH RACE AND KINGDOM 131

Craebi (Moncreiff). Nectan next defeated Alpin at Caislen
Credi (Scone), when Alpin disappears into Galloway. Angus
then vanquished Nectan, and his lieutenants crushed his
forces on the Spey ; and finally Angus defeated and killed
Drust at Dromaderg Blathmig, or Kinblethmont, near the
Redhead of Angus, where the neighbouring stone at St.
Vigeans is believed to record the sepulture of the unfortunate
Drest or Drostan. The conclusion of Bede's history
corresponds with the accession of Angus in 731, and the
historian, in summing up the situation, says, c The Picts at
this time have a treaty of peace with the Angles, and rejoice
in being united in Catholic peace and truth with the universal
Church.'

The reign of Angus Mac Fergus, the most powerful of the
Pictish monarchs, which lasted for thirty years, is notable
for the Pictish conquest of Dalriada, where the Scots were
enfeebled by the contests between the race of Gabran and
that of Lorn. Three times did Angus invade Dalriada.
On the second, in 736, he laid waste the region, took Dunadd,
burnt Creich, and bound two princes of the house of Lorn
in chains. An attack by the tribe of Lorn on the region to
the south of the Forth was met on the banks of the Avon
by Talorgan, the brother of Angus, and defeated with heavy
loss. The third invasion, in 741, is recorded in the brief
words, ' the crushing of Dalriada by Angus Mac Fergus.'
The Picts seem to have been at this time also fighting with
the Angles, but in a few years the Angles and Picts are found
united in a joint attack on the Britons of Strathclyde. In
750 Eadberct of Northumbria added the plain of Kyle to the
Saxon kingdom, while in a battle at Mocetauc (Mugdock)
in Dumbartonshire between the Picts and the Britons.
Talorgan, the king's brother, was slain. Two years later a
battle is recorded ' between the Picts themselves ' in the
strath of the Mearns, and in 756 Eadberct and Angus led
an army into Strathclyde, besieged Alclyde (Dumbarton),
and received the submission of the Britons. But Simeon of
Durham mysteriously records that ten days afterwards

132 THE CELTIC EEVIEW

almost the whole army perished as Eadberct was leading it
from Ovania (probably Avondale or Strathaven) in the Clyde
valley to Niwanbyrig (Newburgh). The other great event
in the reign of Angus was the foundation of St. Andrews
on the arrival of Regulus with the relics of St. Andrew.
The tradition records that Angus, having attacked either the
Britons or the Saxons, and being surrounded by the enemy,
was, while walking with his seven c comites,' surrounded by a
divine light, and the voice of St. Andrew promised him
victory if he would dedicate the tenth part of his inheritance
to God and St. Andrew. He was victorious, and on his
return from an expedition into Argyll, met near Braemar
Regulus, who had landed at Kilrymont, the future St.
Andrews. The result was the supersession of St. Peter by
St. Andrew as the patron saint of the Pictish realm. Angus,
who is described by a Saxon chronicler ' as a sanguinary
tyrant of the most cruel actions,5 died in 761, and was
succeeded by his brother Bruide, and he by Cinoidh, who,
in 768, is found fighting in Fortrenn against Aed Fin, a
leader of the Dalriadic Scots whose name is found in the line
of the Scottish kings, and who seems to have been the first
to recover the Scottish power from its low estate. In 775
Simeon of Durham records that ' Cynoth, king of the Picts,
was taken from the whirl of this polluted life.' He was
succeeded by Alpin son of Wroid, who seems to have ob-
tained some of the Northumbrian territory north of the
Tweed, and he by Drest son of Talorgan, and Talorgan son
of Angus, the latter being the first case of a son of a previous
king succeeding, and apparently reigning over the southern
Picts during the first part of the reign of Drest. Drest was
succeeded by a Conall son of Tadg, who, in 789, was at-
tacked and killed by Constantin son of Fergus, who ruled
over the Picts from 789 to 820, and during at least part of
that time over Dalriada.

There now appears on the scene a new force which had
much to do with the termination of the separate existence
of the Pictish realm. This was the Norwegian and Danish

THE PICTISH EACE AND KINGDOM 133

pirates. In 793, c of a truth,' Simeon of Durham tells us,
' the Pagans from the northern region came with a naval
armament to Britain like stinging hornets, and overran the
country in all directions like fierce wolves, plundering, tear-
ing, and killing, not only sheep and oxen, but priests and
levites and choirs of monks and nuns.' They laid waste
alike the Northumbrian coasts and the Western Isles, burn-
ing Iona in 802, and slaughtering the whole community
of the island in 806. The immediate result was the foun-
dation of separate churches, one in Ireland and one in Scot-
land, as the head churches of the Columban foundations in
the two countries. For the Scottish foundation a central
instead of an island position was selected, and Constantin
founded the church of Dunkeld, two hundred and twenty-five
years after the church of Abernethy was founded by one of
his predecessors. Constantin was succeeded by his brother
Angus, Dalriada being governed under him by Aed, son of
Boanta, and Angus's son Eoganan. He died in 834, and
the second instance occurs of a break in the Pictish rule
and a divided succession, for Drest son of Constantin son
of his brother and predecessor, and Talorgan son of Wthoil,
reign jointly for three years. There had, however, appeared
another competitor for the Pictish throne, in the person of
Alpin son of Eochaidh and grandson of Aedfin, a Dalriadic
Scot, who must have claimed through his mother, to whom
he owed his Pictish name, and whom the mediaeval historians
call Fergusia, daughter of Hungus, king of the Picts. The
Chronicle of Huntingdon records that in the year 834 * there
was a conflict between the Scots and Picts at Easter, and
many of the more noble of the Picts were slain, and Alpin,
king of the Scots, remained victorious, but being elated
with his success, he was, in another battle fought on the
20th of July in the same year, defeated and decapitated.'
Pitalpin or Pitelpie, formerly Basalpin, near Dundee, is the
traditional site of this battle.

The Pictish Chronicle records after Drest and Talorgan
the reign of Uven son of Unuist, from 836 to 839. He is

134 THE CELTIC REVIEW

the Eoganan son of Angus, who had hitherto reigned over
Dalriada, and is the third instance of the son of a former
monarch. It is to be observed that all three cases are the
sons of kings whose fathers were the two Ferguses, and
probably all of the same family, which, though apparently
specially connected with the region of Fortrenn, is suggested
by the names of its members to have been of Scottish male
descent, while the character of the succession that it endeav-
oured to establish was Scottish. In the year 839, an
invasion of the Danes struck the Pictish state a mortal
blow. The Annals of Ulster record a battle fought by the
Gentiles against the men of Fortrenn, in which Eoganan
son of Angus, Bran son of Angus, Aed son of Boanta, and
others innumerable were slain. This destruction of the
line of Fergus and drain on the Pictish strength gave
Kenneth son of Alpin, the king of the Scots, his oppor-
tunity. The Chronicle of Huntingdon tells us that c Kynadtus
succeeded his father Alpin in his kingdom, and that in the
seventh year of his reign (which corresponds with the year
839), while the Danish pirates, having occupied the Pictish
shores, had crushed the Picts, who were defending them-
selves, with a great slaughter, Kynadius, passing into their
remaining territories, turned his arms against them, and
having slain many, compelled them to take flight, and was
the first king of the Scots who acquired the monarchy of the
whole of Alban, and ruled in it over the Scots.' The Pictish
Chronicle mentions two more kings, Wrad son of Bargoit,
who reigned three years, and Bred, who reigned one year,
and is the last of the Pictish kings in that Chronicle. These
reigns bring us to 844, which was the twelfth year of
Kenneth's reign over the Scots, and the Chronicle of
Huntingdon again tells that ' in his twelfth year Kenneth
encountered the Picts seven times in one day, and having
destroyed many, confirmed the kingdom to himself.' The
Pictish Chronicle states that Kenneth son of Alpin, first of
the Scots, governed Pictavia happily for sixteen years. Two
years, however, before he came to Pictavia, he acquired

THE PICTISH RACE AND KINGDOM 135

the kingdom of Dalriada. As Kenneth died in 860, this
concurs in making the date of the supersession of the
Pictish by the Scottish monarchy the year 844. Later
chronicles of less authority give three more so-called Pictish
kings — Kinat son of Ferat, one year, Brude son of Fotel,
two years, and Drest son of Ferat, three years — which
brings us to 850, the year usually assigned to the Scottish
conquest. Drest, the last, is said to have been slain by
the Scots ' at Forte viot, or, according to some, at Scone.'
They seem, however, to have been but leaders of the
embers of an unavailing resistance, for in 851 Kenneth
transferred the relics of St. Columba to Dunkeld, an incident
which marks the completion of the new settlement and the
full restoration of the supremacy of the Columban Church.
That the influence of the Church and the previous proscrip-
tion of the Columban clergy had much to do with the course
of events is clearly indicated by the reflection on the fate
of the Picts in the Pictish Chronicle. ' For God thought
them worthy to be made aliens from and stript of their
hereditary possessions, as their perverseness deserved, for
they not only spurned the rites and the precepts of the Lord,
but also refused to allow themselves to be placed on an
equal footing with others.'

The subsequent ecclesiastical policy of the Scottish
dynasty was wiser and more generous than that of their
Pictish predecessors, for Constantin, who succeeded in 900,
in the sixth year of his reign, held a solemn assembly on the
Mote Hill at Scone, at which he as king and Cellach as
bishop of Kilrymont, or St. Andrews, resolved ' that the
laws and discipline of the faith, and the rights of the
churches and of the Evangel, should be preserved entire
and on a footing of equality with the Scots.' By this sub-
stantial union of their churches, the consolidation of the
two peoples must have been materially advanced.

The mediaeval chroniclers give dramatic accounts of the
episodes of the revolution, and the mode of the Scottish
conquest. They tell how Kenneth restored the fainting

136 THE CELTIC REVIEW

courage of his chiefs by the apparition of a man clad in
glittering fish scales, who as a heavenly messenger foretold
victory ; and how the great lords of the Picts were invited
to a council at which they were treacherously slain ; or to
a banquet, where the seats were undermined, and the
guests precipitated into hollow places where they were
easily murdered, and the Scots took their land, reaching
from sea to sea. That there was some foundation for these
traditions, and that there were scenes marked by treachery
and assassination, as well as hard fighting in the field, is
indicated by the lines in the Prophecy of St. Berchan : —

1 It was by strength of spears and swords,
By violent deaths, by violent fates ;
By him are deceived in the east the firm ones.
He shall dig in the earth, cunning the art,
Dangerous goad blades, death and pillage,
In the middle of scone of high shields.'

According to some accounts, the Scots emerged from
Galloway, reconquered Dalriada, and from thence invaded
Pictavia. According to another, which seems to refer to
the return of the Columban clergy, they entered Ross from
Iona and proceeded south as far as Scone and St. Andrews,
but the numbers indicated represent more than a missionary
enterprise. ' It is perhaps,' says Skene with reason, • not
an unreasonable conclusion that the Scots invaded the
Pictish territories in two bands — one under Kenneth across
Drumalban against the southern Picts, and the other from
sea by Loch Broom against the northern Picts.5

The true character of the revolution was, however, rather
dynastic than racial. The common characteristics and the
comparative numbers of the two peoples put any such
wholesale extermination as that accepted by the mediaeval
historians, and popular credulity out of the question.
The family of Kenneth Mac Alpin, being backed by the
full force of the Scots, succeeded where that of Angus
Mac Fergus had failed, and established the rule of male
succession. The Scottish chiefs who followed Kenneth

THE PICTISH RACE AND KINGDOM 137

would profit largely in lands and power and probably most in
the central districts around the capital, and between these
and Argyll, and it is probable that a Scottish superseded to
a large extent the Pictish population down the course of
the Tay, in Balquhidder, and Strathearn. But throughout
the country generally the mass of the population remained
the Caledonian Gael whether called Picts or Scots. The
Pictish rule of succession would facilitate not only the
change in the transmission of the crown but the amalga-
mation of the two races. Its influence is to be traced
long after, when Saxons and Normans, by marriage with
the great Celtic heiresses, were at once accepted as the
leaders of the Celtic tenantry of Buchan and Angus.
The expressions c Pictos delevit,' ' Cinadius's delevit,' are
probably true as referring to the chiefs of the Picts, more
especially in the central districts, but no exterminating
conquest could have taken place without its being recorded
in the Irish annals. On the contrary, the deaths of Kenneth
and his three successors, Donald, Constantin, and Aed, are
recorded as those of kings of the Picts ; the country is still
spoken of as Pictavia, Cruithentuath, or Fortrenn ; and it
is not till the death of Constantin in 877 that the name
1 Scotti ' appears as applicable to the inhabitants of the old
Pictish territory. Indeed, after the death of Constantin' s
brother Aed, there appears to have been a revival of the
Pictish sentiment, and Eocha, son of Run, king of the
Britons, whose mother was sister of Constantin and Aed,
and who therefore had a good claim as an heir by Pictish
custom, was placed on the throne, having associated with
him as his governor Cyric or Grig, who became the Gregory
the Great of the monkish historians. They were driven
out after eleven years, and with the succession of Donald,
son of Constantin, the new order was firmly established,
the law of tanistry, which appears to have been solemnly
adopted as one of the Scottish laws of Edfin by the Gael at
Forte viot in the reign of the previous Donald, Kenneth's
brother, became the permanent rule, the country became

138 THE CELTIC REVIEW

Alban, and the royal race kings of Alban. From that it
was but a step to the name Scotia for the land, and that of
Scots for the whole people. The Pictish had been super-
seded by the Scottish kingdom, and the whole Gaelic race
of Northern Britain were henceforth to be known as Scots.

THUGAR MAIGHDEAN A CHUIL-BHUIDHE

Alexander Carmichael, LL.D.

The following song was taken down from Mrs. Flora
Maclennan, nee Matheson, Doirnie, Kintail. Mrs. Maclennan
died a few weeks afterwards, full of years and honours, and
full of old songs and of old traditions of historical value.
She was a worthy member of a worthy family, who took
an intelligent interest in the song literature of their country.
Her brother, Mr. Alexander Matheson, shipmaster, Doirnie,
rescued much historical lore throughout the extensive
parishes of Killchotham, Killallain, and Killdubhaich. He
gave valuable assistance to Dr. Alexander Macbain in his
History of the Mathesons, and to Mr. Alexander Mackenzie
in his History of the Mackenzies, and in his History of the
Macraes, and to several others writing upon historical
subjects. Some of Mr. Matheson' s MSS. are in the posses-
sion of his highly excellent sister, Miss Betsy Matheson,
Doirnie, while others have been lost through lending.

This song was composed to Miss Christina Macculloch,
eldest daughter of Macculloch of Park, Dingwall.

Thog am bodach air an each i
Cha do leidid e ro-mhath i,
Buaram orm nan leiginn leis i
Nan robh agam storas.

Seisd. — Thugar maighdean a chuil bhuidhe,
Thugar maighdean a chuil bhuidhe,
Thugar maighdean a chuil bhuidhe
Dh' fhear bu duibhe feosag.

THUGAR MAIGHDEAN A CHUIL-BHUIDHE 139

Nan robh agams' an sin saoibhreas [oighreachd],
Crodh us caoire, greidh us goibhre,
Nail nar leiginn oigh an aoibhnis,
Le fear foill no foirneart.

Seisd. — Thugar maighdean a chuil bhuidhe,
Thugar maighdean a chuil bhuidhe,
Thugar maighdean a chuil bhuidhe
Dh' fhear bu duibhe feosag.

Thugadh taigh dhi ann an eilean,
Far nach faiceadh i fear foille,
Far nach cluinneadh i guth coilich,
Far nach goir an smeorach.

Seisd. — Thugar maighdean a chuil bhuidhe,
Thugar maighdean a chuil bhuidhe,
Thugar maighdean a chuil bhuidhe
Dh' fhear bu duibhe feosag.

LITERAL TRANSLATION

The carle he raised her on his horse,
He did not seat her very well,
Vows upon me had I let her with him
If I had wealth and riches.

Chorus. — They gave the maiden of the yellow hair,
They gave the maiden of the yellow hair,
They gave the maiden of the yellow hair
To the man of blackest beard.

Had I then estate and substance,
Nout and sheep, steeds and goats,
Truly I would not have allowed the maiden of joy
With deceitful man nor oppressive.

Chorus. — They gave the maiden of the yellow hair,
They gave the maiden of the yellow hair,
They gave the maiden of the yellow hair
To the man of blackest beard.

They gave her house upon an island,
Where she could see no guileful man,
Where she could hear no crowing cock
Nor joyous voice of mavis.

140 THE CELTIC REVIEW

Chorus. — They gave the maiden of the yellow Jiair,
They gave the maiden of the yellow hair,
They gave the maiden of the yellow hair
To the man of blackest beard.

This was all that the singer could remember of this
song. Volumes of songs and poems, stories and traditions
died with this worthy woman. v

Miss Macculloch was very beautiful, and very handsome,
and had many admirers. She married the Rev. Farquhar
Macrae, minister of Kintail, and castellan constable of
Eilean Donnan. Mr. Farquhar Macrae was the tainistear
of the Macraes, and the second son of Gillecriosda Macrae,
of Inverineit, Lochdubhaich.

The Macraes had been noted for their big and manly
forms, and for their black hair and black beards. Since
the time of Christina Macculloch some Macraes have been
fair, with fair hair, fair beards, and fair complexions.
This brought about the terms Clann Mhic-rath Dhuibh
agus Clann Mhic-rath Bhain — the Black Macraes and the
Fair Macraes. But the term ' ban,' fair, is not always
applicable to the descendants of the fair Christina Mac-
culloch, some of them having retained the paternal
complexion.

Mr. Alexander Mackinnon, Coire Chatachain, Skye,
was of the MacKinnons of Strath, Skye, an ancient family
of high standing in their day.

His grandfather was punished and imprisoned for having
given food to Prince Charlie when starving, and praised
and commended for having entertained Dr. Johnson.

Mr. Alexander MacKinnon, better known as ' Corrie,5
was factor for Lord MacDonald in Skye, and for Sir John
Orde in Uist. He was a big, handsome man of goodly
presence and good ability, and was known and respected
throughout the West. He was of the fair Macraes through
his mother, who was fair and handsome. A Macrae from
Kintail came to Mr. MacKinnon about a farm, and in order
to ingratiate himself with the man in power, the applicant

/

THUGAR MAIGHDEAN A CHUIL-BHUIDHE 141

for the farm said: ' Agus tha fios agaibh fhein, Fhir 'a
Choire, is ann do Chlann Mhic-rath Bhain a ta raise.5 ' Gun
cuidicheadh Dia Clann Mhic-rath Dhuibh ma's ann do Chlann
Mhic-rath Bhain a ta thusa,' arsa Fear a Choire. — ' And
you know yourself, Corrie, that it 's of the Fair Macraes
that I am.' ' May God help the Black Macraes if it is
of the Fair Macraes that thou art,' said Corrie. The man
was exceptionally swarthy, with intensely black beard and
hair unusually long.

Eilean Donnan, island of St. Donnan, stands at the
junction of Lochalsh, Loch Long, and Lochdubhaich.
These three arms of the sea join or disjoin here, resembling
the arms of the Isle of Man.

The islanpl of Donnan is accessible by foot at low tide,
and accessible by boat at high water. It is a small, high
island with ancient, picturesque ruins upon the summit.
The ruins are old and dilapidated, having suffered from age
and war in the past, and from age and neglect in the present.

Eilean Donnan is an extremely cold, exposed situation,
being open to all the winds that blow up and down all the
arms of the sea converging upon it. In his old age Mr.
Farquhar Macrae suffered from his cold, exposed residence,
and he was removed from Eilean Donnan to Innis a'
Chruiteir, some distance up the side of Loch Long. The
place looks right across Loch Long, the mountains of Loch-
alsh being in the foreground, the mountains of Skye in the
background, while behind these stands, sphinx-like, the
singular Sgur of Eigg — the Isle of Eigg having been the
scene of St. Donnan' s martyrdom and of other tragedies.

Latterly the strong man and the powerful preacher
became frail and inactive. Mr. Farquhar Macrae died at
Innis a' Chruiteir in 1662, in the eighty-second year of his
age. He left several sons and daughters. A son was Mr.
John Macrae, minister of Dingwall, who wrote a history of
the Macraes. A grandson was Donnachadh Mor nam pios —
Big Duncan of the cups, who wrote the Fearnaig Manuscript.

Innis' a Chruiteir means meadow of the harpers, the

/

142 THE CELTIC BE VIEW

land that belonged to the harpers of the Macraes and
Mackenzies.

The harpers enjoyed these land till they died out.
After that the place became the drilling and manoeuvring
ground of the local volunteers during the time of the
Napoleon scares. , Here all the eligible men of these wild,
. mountainous districts met to prepare* themselves to meet
the French.

And probably it would be difficult, if not impossible, to
find within tbsJJnited Kingdoms men of greater bone and
sinew, of greater height and strength, than these Macraes,
Mackenzies, Maclennans, Maccalmans, and Mathesons of
Kintail, of Lochalsh, of Killiallain — whether black or brown,
fair or swarthy, red or grey. Kindly men all till roused,
and then !

The Rev. Farquhar Macrae removed from Gairloch
several years before he ceased to be minister of Gairloch,
and before he became minister of Kintail. His responsible
position as castellan constable of Eilean Donnan, required
his presence and attention in those troublous times.

The following account of this good and great man is
extracted from Scott's Fasti.

(1618.) Farquhar Macrae translated from Gairloch,
admitted in 1618, at which time there was no desk, no
pulpit, and no collection for the poor (in Kintail). He was
old, weak, and deprived of his livelihood by his son and
successor, and died in 1662 aged eighty- two. He was a
sound, eloquent, and grave preacher, of whom Bishop
Maxwell said he was a man of great gifts, but unfortunately
lost in the ' Hielands.' He married, 1st December 1611,
Christian, eldest daughter of Macculloch of Park, and had
five sons — Alexander of Inverinate, Mr. John, minister of
Dingwall, Donald, his successor, Christopher and Thomas,
besides daughters, of whom the eldest married Malcolm
Macrae, killed at the battle of Auldearn, and afterwards
William Mackenzie.

IN MEMOEIAM: ALFEED NUTT 143

Mr. Alexander Macrae of Dornie, descended from one of
the sons, bequeathed a hundred merks under the manage-
ment of the University and King's College, Aberdeen, for
educating the children and nearest descendants of the said
Alexander of Inverinate and others.

IN MEMORIAM: ALFEED NUTT (1856-1910) ..

Eleanor Hull

Death has reaped of late with a heavy hand in the ranks
of Celtic scholarship. The deaths in quick succession of
Strachfin, De JubainvilleT^Stokes, and Zimmer, with the
near prospect of the loss to these islands of Dr. Kuno
Meyer who, as is most fitting, goes in October to take
up the post left vacant at Berlin by the last-named scholar's
decease, leave great blanks that as yet the younger men
seem hardly prepared to fill ; whatever the future may
have in store for Celtic studies, the present moment is one
of pause, when it is impossible not to regard with sorrow
the severe breaks in the roll of learning which these men
so brilliantly occupied, and when we look with inquiry
into the near future for signs of the coming of the new
men who shall in some sort replace tjiem.

On another side, the side of comparative folklore, the
last few months have also brought records of loss. Un-
doubtedly the most severe of these, from the point of view
of Celtic interests, as it is the most tragic, has been the
death by drowning in the Eiver Seine of Mr. Alfred Nutt,
in tjie heroic effort to rescue an invalid son from a similar
fate.v Though not himself a Celtic scholar, Mr. Nutt's
interest in the results of these studies was sdeep and of
long standing, and the chief centre and aim of his career,
whether in his private capacity or as publisher, was to
further the advance of the studies in which he took so
unfeigned an interest. He was one of the earliest in this
country to recognise the importance of these studies from

/

144 THE CELTIC EEYIEW

thi broad view of general culture, and to welcome them
for tyie light they throw, not only upon questions of race
and language, but upon mediaeval history, secular and
ecclesiastical, upon folklore, comparative religion and
the development of European literature. Sympathetic
and quick to recognise any genuine effort to advance the
general interest in Celtic studies upon these lines, Mr. Nutt
was always the warm friend, and the intelligent critic of
young writers who seemed to him to be working for the
cause he loved, and personal advantage seemed hardly
to enter into his calculations where the advancement of
Celtic studies claimed his aid. Thus, he threw' himself
heart and soul into the establishment of the Folklore and
Cymmrodorian Societies, by whose means he hoped that
the general bearing and importance of our native folk-
lore (derived in large part from the ancient races of these
islands, the Brython and the Goidel) would become more
widely recognised ; thus, at a time when one publisher
after another refused to have anything to do with an
undertaking so hazardous, financially, as the publication
of Irish Gaelic manuscripts, the founders of the Irish Texts
Society found in him a cordial helper and willing publisher ;
while his personal interest, sound advice, and friendly
sympathy have been a source of strength to all these
societies.

Mr. Nutt's own literary work lay principally in the
direction of establishing the just claims of Welsh and of
Scottish and Irish Gaelic literature to be regarded as form-
ing part of the general current of European culture develop-
ment. The series of small booklets entitled 'Popular
Studies in Mythology,' of which several are by his own
hand, will serve to show the wide manner in which he
regarded this subject. His own contributions to the
series include Celtic and Mediceval Romance, Ossian and
the Ossianic Literature, The Fairy Mythology of Shakes-
peare, Cuchulainn the Irish Achilles, and the Legend of
the Holy Grail. This latter volume contains a brief synopsis

IN MEMOKIAM : ALFKED NUTT 145

of his larger Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail, in
which he develops the thesis of its Celtic origin, and traces
many of its root ideas baclyinto jj^e shadowy realm of
Welsh Folk mythology, from which he believes (with
much likelihood, in our opinion) that they had their origin.
This volume on the Holy Grail, published in 1888 by the
Folklore Society, will perhaps remain as Mr. Nutt's most
important personal contribution to the history of litera-
ture. He is, however, more widely known to the reading
public as the author of The Voyage of Bran, a study of
Celtic beliefs regarding an elysium, or as he prefers' to
call it, an ' Other- v orld.' In these volumes he summarises
the chief Irish legends, containing traces of the doctrine
of a life in the unseen, and submits them to an exhaustive
comparison with Classical and with foreign mediaeval ideas
on the same" subject. The study is founded upon an
ancient Irish poem called £he ' Voyage of .Bran,' edited and
translated by Dr. Kuno Meyer for this work, which relates
the call of Bran by a fairy maid, and the wonders that
he finds in Magh Mell, ' the Pleasant Plain ' or Irish
elysium. Besides these two larger works, Mr. Nutt
contributed a large number of /papers of importance to
the Folklore Record, and other journals, bearing more or
less directly upon the subject that seemed, as time went
on, more and more to attract his mind. His notes and
introductions to books published by his firm on Celtic
subjects rose to the importance of first-hand studies.
Perhaps, indeed, the most thoughtful and searching piece
of original work that ever fell from his hand was his intro-
ductions to the collections of Scottish Fenian tales, pub-
lished in Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition. They con-
tain an elaborate and careful analysis of the Ossianic or
Fenian literature, Scottish and Irish, and have done more
than any previous studies to place these Ossianic pieces
in their true historical and literary perspective. If it
was as he himself says in the title-page to his Studies on
the Holy Grail, to J. F. Campbell that he owed his first
VOL. VII. * '../i k

146 THE CELTIC EEVIEW

love for Celtic tradition, he richly repaid the interest so
aroused by untiring devotion in its service. The last
months of Mr. Nutt's life were spent in France, in an
endeavour to recover health that showed signs of break-
ing down. ' I am feeling better,' he wrote to the President
of the Folklore Society only a few days before his tragic
death, c and hope that a quiet summer in the open air
will give me back my full working powers ; but I am
still unequal to any serious or prolonged effort.' Even
here, however, he was ' amusing himself ' with his favourite
studies, and the annotated edition of Matthew Arnold's
> Lectures on the Study of Celtic Literature, which has
appeared since his death, is a dying tribute to his interest
in the cause he had at heart. The general contribution
of Mr. Nutt's life to Celtic studies cannot be summed
up by passing in review a list of his published works. It
will always be felt that his real contribution was made
by his faithful and unswerving adherence, in public and
in private, to a subject to which he attached the first
importance. At the beginning of his career these studies
had hardly emerged from the closet of the specialist, and
they were popularly regarded as the more or less useless
hobby of a few philologists. Before he died, he saw them
elevated to their true place in the current of history,
philology, literature and folklore. It is his highest praise
that this great change owed much to his personal fidelity
and perseverance.

HELGEBIORN THE HEATHEN

Alice Milligan

(Continued from page 50)

IV

Dawn broke in lines of scarlet through the grey of the
eastern sky. Then the sun mounted, and the scarlet

HELGEBIORN THE HEATHEN 147

kindled from liquid gold to living fire and light, and the
floor of the sea was illumined in splendour. The last shreds
of mist were drunk up by the sunlight, or swept away on a
freshening wind that set the waves a-dancing.

Helgebiorn came out of the swoon of darkness and
oblivion shuddering with a consciousness of pain and death-
like coldness, and for a little while cared not to know that
he was alive at all. He lay upon a ledge of rocks under a
steep cliff, where the billows had flung him. His limbs
were numb, and cumbered by the clinging of wet garments.
Blood had congealed in streaks upon his brow, and the
skin of his arms was torn with great scars, in which he felt
the smarting of the brine. His head reeled with confusion
and faintness, and he found it hard to remember what had
come to him ; his eyes, opening wearily, were dazzled by
a great brightness of the blue heavens, through which
myriads upon myriads of sea-birds were whirling. It was
as if a great snow-storm whitened the sky, but instead of
the silence of snow-fall, here was clamorous shrieking from
innumerable shrill voices. He giddied at the sight, and
closed his eyes against it, content to lie there faintly and
take in the breath of life, listening to the liquid lapping of
the sea against the rocks, and the unceasing cries of the
birds.

Out of that stupor he was raised of a sudden by what
seemed a human voice calling to him. In spite of aching
limbs he sat up and looked above him where the sound
came from. At first he saw nothing but the gloom of over-
hanging rocks, tufted with sea-pinks and heath, but a voice
not very far away kept calling as if to cheer him, and he
was thinking it would be some of the shipmen, saved from
the wreck like himself, till at length he recognised this said
loudly in Gaelic, ' Patience with you, poor man ! Patience,
I am coming as quickly as I can, but the rocks are steep.'
At last a swarthy, grey-bearded face was seen peering over
the heathy ledge, and in a little space after his rescuer had
scrambled down and was at his side.

148 THE CELTIC REVIEW

Helgebiorn sat erect now, and in his weakness sickened
almost with dread ; for he knew by the brown garb of the
man and the rough cross hanging round the neck of him
that this was a Christian monk of the Gael, one of the Culdees
or God-servers. He had slain many of that kind, and that
was how he knew. ' Now,' he thought, ' when he sees that
I am a Viking, he will take a sharp stone and cleave my
brains, for I have no strength to struggle against him.'

He tried to lift his right arm, that mighty arm which
had slain so many, both of priests and warriors. The bone
of it was broken, and he groaned in pain, and thought, ' I
am helpless, except maybe that I might deftly trip him
into the sea from this slippery place.'

He was ready to attempt such defence, but the stranger,
instead of looking for a stone, knelt down with soothing
words and tenderly touched the broken arm. ' A pity
that it should become powerless to you,' he said, ' and no
need of that while I have skill to mend it. I had the healing
art once, and great fame for it. I trust I have not forgotten.'
Helgebiorn had knowledge about wounds and fractures, as
warriors who go to battle should have, and when the firm
fingers of the monk began to feel about the broken arm, he
resigned himself to that handling, seeing that all was done
with skill.

It was not long till the priest had brought the broken
bone together, and was tearing long strips from Helgebiorn' s
mantle to bandage and sling it.

' Now may God be praised and Flannan his servant,
and Columcille, mightiest saint of these seas ! That arm
will have its might in it again ere many days.'

At talk of Columcille, Helgebiorn remembered the song
of Creevin, and tears gathered in his grey eyes, to think of
how she was lying drowned in the fathomless blue water.

' Sorrow has come upon you, poor stranger,' said the
Culdee.

1 Sorrow,' said Helgebiorn, taking up the Gaelic word
and slowly finding other words of that speech to follow it.

HELGEBIOEN THE HEATHEN 149

1 Sorrow is on me truly, and desire to know if any other
of my ship's company is saved.'

The monk stepped nearer to the water, and looked up
and down the rocky ledge. He saw only an aged grey seal
basking in the sunlight and shook his head.

1 It is only here, where yourself has been washed up,
that we need look for any other. The walls of the island
are steep. It is only here that a landing can be made. I
have looked, and there is no one to be seen, so, though 1
grieve to say it, it must be that all your companions have
perished.'

Tears of sympathy began to gather in his clear eyes that
were blue as the sea with the brightness of fire in them.

Helgebiorn thought to himself, ' If he knew they were
Norse plunderers he would not weep,' and he racked his
memory to find words of Gaelic to ask further.

1 Is there any sign or remnant of the ship ? '

' Under the cliffs yonder, between this island and the
little one, it seems to me there are some spars floating on
the waves.'

Helgebiorn raised himself to look. ' Those will be some
of the oars,' he said. " Alas ! where are the arms that pulled
them, where is the shapely swift ship that leaped the billows
so buoyantly ? ' He had much to do to keep himself from
bursting forth into a song of lamentation for his Deer of
the Surf which could leap the billows no more. To hide
his sorrow, and to silence his lips, he bowed his face unto
his knees.

' The sea is unfathomable around the island,' said the
monk ; ' this island and the other are like mountain crests,
rising above the waves out of that vast abyss. The ship
has not broken, but gone down into the depths. God rest
the souls of those that perished in her ! But rise now, and
be thankful that you are in life yet. There was surely the
prayer of some pious person interceding for you, poor
stranger, or maybe prayers in some church that you have
enriched.'

150 THE CELTIC REVIEW

Helgebiorn could not forbear smiling grimly. ' Not
prayers from a church, I think,' he murmured. 6 But there
was a woman of Ireland who invoked the protection of
Columcille.'

' A woman of Ireland.' The eyes of the monk softened
with tears ; his lips trembled with eagerness. ' Can it be
that you are from Ireland, dear stranger ? '

Helgebiorn spoke slowly, saying words that were not true
in his uncertain Gaelic.

' I am indeed from Ireland, good man, but have been a
long time in captivity and servitude among foreigners.
There was a girl of Ireland on that ship with me ; it is for
her I am in grief, not for the Vikings and seamen of Orkney,
who lie drowned down there ; nor need you regret that
they are dead, for they were grim heathens and enemies to
all priests.'

The Irishman stood on the slippery ledge of rock and
gazed down into the crystalline depths with mournful
brooding eyes.

6 Alas ! my greater grief ! ' he said, c to think how they
have lived and died without knowledge of the Lord, without
penitence, or the grace of baptism.'

He spread out his arms above the water, in act of
blessing. Helgebiorn watched in silent wonder, and saw
his thin lips move as if he spoke to the Unseen. It was
in prayer he was that way some time.

' A woman of Ireland lies there,' he said at last, c with
waves above her instead of her native flowery sod ; yet the
prayer of a man of Ireland is spoken over her.'

* You are one of the Irish Gael,' said Helgebiorn, feign-
ing some joy as if greeting a kinsman. ' Of what name
and tribe are you ? '

c Ere, son of Lore of the tirbe of the Dal-cas of Clare,'
said the monk. ' Such was I by birth ; by calling, a
servant in the brotherhood of the house of saintly Flannan
of Cill-da-lua — an unworthy brother banished here for my
sins.'

HELGEBIORN THE HEATHEN 151

He crossed his thin brown hands on his breast, and
closed his eyes, as if musing on things past. Helgebiorn
wondered what those sins might have been, but questioned
no more.

Suddenly the long feathery weeds that fringed the rocks
down at the tide line were uplifted and swayed by a high
swelling wave. They swirled this way and that, shining in
the sun where they showed above the water.

Ere started, and took thought of the shipwrecked man.

1 The tide is turning,' he said, ' and waves will soon
wash this ledge. You must try to climb up the steep steps
in the cliff, and without shifting that bone at all.'

He flung a strong arm about Helgebiorn to guide and
help him, and together they faced the steep and climbed
it slowly and carefully ; whilst above them and about them
and around them sea-birds shrieked, and the murmur and
wash of the breaking water came ever more faintly from
below.

At last they stood on the island's summit.

The sea swept away on every side to the circle of over-
doming heaven, unbroken by any coast or cape of land.
Helgebiorn scanned it east and west, north and south, with
his eager, keen eyes, but discerned no blue faint outline of
any mountain summit.

'It is far away from Alba,' he said to his companion,
and the Culdee answered, ' Yes, it is very far.'

To the south of the island on which they stood was a
cluster of smaller islets ; mere pinnacles and domes of rocks
they seemed.

' They are called, with this, the Seven Hunters,' said
the Culdee. ' Some have fancied they are like a party of
horsemen, riding westward to the sunset.'

To Helgebiorn they seemed like a fleet of black-hulled
ships, on which no masts or sails were raised, from which

152 THE CELTIC KEVIEW

no oars were swung, but which had come to anchor there
in the lonely ocean for ever and evermore. He thought of
the Sagas, that tell how sometimes a hero chose instead
of mound burial this way after death, to be laid on ship-
deck, with all his arms girt on him, and resinous tree logs
piled for his bed, and then, with flame and smoke wrapping
him, to drift seaward and return no more. It was thus
that the Gods of Asgard had done with the body of Baldur
the Beautiful, and Helgebiorn had made a song desiring
that destiny at last for himself.

Lay me not low
With clay for clothing,
Make me no mound,
Set no stone standing,
Mine be in death
The bed of Baldur
On broad ship board
And weapons with me.
Heap high the pine ;
Place shield for pillow,
Wax well the sheets
For fire to fold me ;
Wait for a wind
And tide to take me,
Then send me sailing
At evening outward.

It seemed to him as if he was now aboard such a burial
ship, that had drifted far from the land of- living men, out
into the ocean solitude.

He was as good as dead, for with the loss of his ship
and his band of Vikings a career of war and pride was
closed to him. To Orkney he could only come as an out-
law— by reason of his derision of the Jarl. Among all the
isles of Sudreyland and Nordreyland, he knew of none
where he would be safe from the vengeance of the pursuer.
In Ireland, coming without a retinue, he could only take
service as a humble swordsman, and he had been accus-
tomed to command.

HELGEBIOEN THE HEATHEN 153

As he stood there on the summit of the islet, drawing
breath after the steep climb, these thoughts rushed rapidly
through his mind, and instead of looking towards Alba and
the Isles with any repining, it was to the sunset land he
gazed ; that mysterious, unexplained realm into which many
had sailed and returned to say there was naught but ocean ;
others had gone and come back no more. Some said these
had perished ; others, and these mostly the poets, dreamed
that they had found a world better than any known before.

Helgebiorn, looking westward, thought of the poets'
dreams, and wondered if he could find a ship in which to
sail westward, to discover whether any such land lay there.

There was in truth a great country beyond the wide
sea, but it was very far, and not for his finding.

The hermit was silent as Helgebiorn stood surveying
the seven islets and the ocean wastes.

1 It is a fair prospect and a peaceful,' he said at last,
c nor can I think it solitary, though I have been alone here
for many a year.'

' Is there no other man on any of the islets ? ' asked
Helgebiorn.

1 No other ; yet with the sea-birds and the swimming
seals for company I can be well content. The seal, when you
come to know him, is gentle and human, and the birds with
their clamour keep you from missing the sound of voices.'

1 But in the winter, when the birds go, and the nights
are long, it must be a melancholy thing to be companion-
less.'

' Nay,' said the Culdee, ' he who has eyes to see and a
heart to understand need never be without the companion
of his soul.'

Helgebiorn wondered, but did not question him. They
were walking now towards where a grey building stood
among the heather. It was of unmortared stone, fitted
deftly, and built up to form both wall and roof. A low,
square-headed door pierced one gable, and leaning beside
it was a wicker currach covered with hide.

154 THE CELTIC EEVIEW

6 This, then, is your house,' said Helgebiorn ; c you have
built it strongly.'

c No,' said the Culdee, ' it is the house of the Lord.
Come, as is fitting, and render thanks for your deliverance,
from the death of drowning.'

He stepped through the square-headed doorway, and
fell upon his knees. Helgebiorn, a pace or so behind,
imitated his actions. For a minute they were together,
with clasped hands held up towards something that was
hardly to be discerned in the sudden gloom. The heathen
man had often entered an oratory of this kind, but never
in this humble way. He knew the fashion of the Christian
altar, and the sort of vessels and books that should be
about it. There was no gleam of gold here, only a large
plain crucifix of wood, and a white book on the simple stone
table. Along the wall behind it, the hermit had made a
fanciful decoration by applying shells and bleached bones
to a rough coating of mud plaster. Helgebiorn, instead
of praying as they knelt, let his eyes wander over that rude
mosaic, where he discerned the three-flanged spine bones
of whales and smaller fishes, the skulls and delicate pipe-
like bones of birds, chips of fragile egg-shells brownly
freckled, seal tusks, lumps of stone rough with roseate
coraline, limpet-shells and mussels with the pearly side
out. It was like the work of a child, and had given the
deviser innocent, child-like delight.

As he rose from his knees, and saw Helgebiorn admiring
his handiwork, his eyes beamed with pleasure.

c Ah,' he said, ' I will bring a light some time again and
let you look into it carefully. That is how I employ myself
in the long winter evenings when it is too dark to work at
the books. I am never idle. Some day, perhaps, every
wall will be covered like that, and my little island church
will be as beautiful as the dwelling of a sea fairy. But
come now, you must have food.'

There was a beaten path from the door of the oratory
to another building, which Helgebiorn had not taken to be

HELGEBIORN THE HEATHEN 155

a house at all. It looked to him like a cairn of rough stones,
but proved to be a beehive-shaped cell. A drift of blue
smoke came out of the low doorway.

' I have a little fire there to-day instead of at my hearth
outside, for the wind was too strong and blew the flame up.
I want it only to smoulder.' He took an earthen cooking
vessel from among the ashes and shook it up in his hand.
' I am extracting red dye,' he said, ' to brighten the letters
of the holy book.' He dipped his finger into the concoction
and drew it out stained as if with blood. ' Ah,' he said,
1 it is doing well, but now, where shall I find a vessel in which
to make warm food for you ? There was no thought with
me at all when I kindled the fire that there would be a
human creature needing meat from me this day, and I have
used all the vessels. Yet it is hot drink you must have
to put the cold shivering from your bones.'

Helgebiorn took off his wet garments, and lay in a bed
of heath with only a mantle over him whilst Ere took the
rest out and spread them on the heath to dry in the sun.
He set stones on them, lest they should blow away over the
cliffs into the sea, and as he fingered them, wondered at
the fine texture of the woollen cloth and the bright colours
and subtle interweaving of the embroidery.

Then he went off to milk a goat, and soon had a bowlful
to warm for his weary guest, and some coarse hard bread
to offer with it. His labour did not cease there, for the
wounds where the skin was torn by the rocks had to be
dressed and washed, and not till this was done did he go
away, saying, ' I will have my share of writing to do before
sundown.'

In that dark cell, with the^moulder of red fire warming
him, Helgebiorn sank into sleep and dreaming. He thought
he was at last dead indeed, and laid on a ship of burial.
At the helm stood a white-robed steersman, whose face was
hidden by a hood, and they went out into the Ocean together
— dead Viking and unknown pilot. The sun went down,
and strange stars shone above him where he lay and he

156 THE CELTIC REVIEW

rose suddenly up from the bed of death and cried aloud,
1 See, they have forgotten to kindle the funeral pyre, and
now I must sail and sail, and can never come to Valhalla.'
And then, as he stared on the starlight sea, he saw a woman's
graceful form rise from it, breast high, lightly as the crest
of a rising wave, with wan face and waving of white arms.
By the shine of that illumined water he saw her clearly.
It was Creevin. She stretched her hands out tenderly
towards him ; then her voice came : ' Columcille is power-
ful upon the sea. He has brought thee hither.' And at
that he knew who the white-robed steersman was : Colum-
cille of Iona, whose followers he had slain. He rose up on
the deck, and sought his sword to slay this Culdee like the
rest, but lo ! where sword and shield should have been laid
at a Viking's burial he found nothing to hand, and cried
aloud in fury, ' I am without a sword, without a shield,
without funeral-fire or warrior-fame. Ho ! Valkyr women,
choosers of the slain, how can you have me for Valhalla,
with never a death-wound on my breast ? '

Then that white wraith of Creevin spread forth her
arms to him, as if to say ' Come to me ' ; and the smile on
her lips was so sweet and alluring that instantly his rage
was gone, and he cared about the quest of Valhalla no more,
and when his dead love, still smiling, sank into the silvery
water, he murmured softly, ' My ship shall anchor here.'
And saying these words he woke.

Startled, he leaped from the heart of the gloom, and
saw through the cell door the old hermit seated on a stone,
using the last light of the sunset glow in writing his book.
Stars throbbed in the roseate flush, the sea was unseen but
murmurous. A deep, mysterious sense of peace and calm
fell upon his heart ; it was as if he waited for some voice
out of the heights of heaven to call to him, now that he was
far from the din of battle and could hear.

The hermit rose suddenly from his work and fell upon
his knees, with hands clasped upon his breast. He was
saying the evening prayer. Helgebiorn noticed the simply

HELGEBIORN THE HEATHEN 157

girt gown and hood, and thought of the mysterious pilot
of his dream, and with a sense of unalterable destiny
repeated, now waking, the words he had murmured in
sleep : ' My ship shall anchor here. Yes, sweet Creevin
of Ireland, my ship shall anchor here.'

VI

That was the first of many days in Eilean Mor for Helge-
biorn the Heathen. Many and very peaceful were the days
of his life there. You will be wondering, no doubt, how
peace was tolerable to him at all, who had been used to the
crash of battle ; how rest in that small island did not fret
him after far sea roving, how the companionship of the
gentle hermit was endured by one who had moved always
among warrior bands, rejoicing in feasting and revelling,
shouting and singing, capture of fair women and sharing of
plunder. You will think that the island was as a prison
to him, and he for ever longing to be free from it.

But though at the first he felt a sullen rage against the
fate that had dealt thus with him, it was not in the nature
of his mind to be downcast by any misfortune, and far
from brooding or mourning in his forced seclusion, he
went about blithely and actively, and busied himself in
every possible way. There was in him a sense of delight
in the strangeness of the life he led, an insatiable curiosity
to understand the ways of the hermit ; to know what
Saga he was recording so carefully on the leaves of precious
vellum, what thoughts he was thinking when his eyes
closed and his lips moved for many an hour in the day.
1 1 will learn the secrets of the priests better thus than
by cleaving their skulls, and it behoves the warrior to be
wise in all ways.' But he durst not question the hermit,
nor betray his own ignorance of the Christian faith, so
he could only watch and give ear to anything that was
said, and he fingered the lettered pages curiously, as he
helped the old scribe to mix the colours, but could not read

158 THE CELTIC EEVIEW

a word there. All this time converse between them was
in the Gaelic tongue, which Helgebiorn spoke slowly and
carefully, excusing his difficulty at times by reminding the
other, ' I was a long time dwelling among the Vikings.'

The hermit had more time for writing now, for Helge-
biorn saved him all trouble in procuring or preparing food.
He it was who herded the goats and milked them, who
fished from the currach around the rocks of the island, or
took eggs from the sea-birds to serve for a meal. There was
a little plot of herbs growing under the shelter of the rough
wall, and a store of corn in a dry place beside the oratory.
' It is brought me yearly by the men who come for the
fowling,' the monk explained ; ' they bring materials for
my writing, too, and take the Avritten books away. I will
have more than ever before to give them because of thy
helpful companionship ; but alas ! they will take thee at
their going next time, for I am vowed to solitude.'

Helgebiorn pondered on this, and said nothing against
it, only asked : ' When do they come, these fowlers you
speak of, and from what place ? '

' They are Christian men, Gaels from Eilean Fada. They
need the flesh and feathers of the rock fowl, and fill their
boats at every coming. Alas ! it vexes my heart to see
them kill the joyous living things ; but our Lord allows it,
and I have instructed them how to slay them without pain.
None are wounded now by stones as they used to be, nor
left to flutter away with broken wing or limb. None are
killed save those that can be netted or laid hands on, and
these die swiftly and not unhappily, for they know not
what death is. Alas ! alas ! ' he exclaimed, beating his
breast, c would that I could secure an ample mercy for my
fellow-creatures. To fight, to wound, to shed blood, to
take life ; such is the greatest glory of kings and rulers,
not the administering of law and justice. When shall wars
have an end, and the cry of the orphan and desolate be
heard on earth no more ? '

Helgebiorn listened with a strange gleam in his eye that

HELGEBIOEN THE HEATHEN 159

might have been a mocking smile ; words leaped to his
lips, but he checked them, and asked instead : ' You have
not told me when these fowlers come, who as you say are
to take me from the island.'

1 It is not very long since they went,' said the Hermit,
' and till midsummer next I shall see them no more.' Then
his face brightened with a look of friendly joy as he gazed
at Helgebiorn. ' All the winter,' he said, ' and through
the spring, and till summer warms the sea I shall have a
comrade and a helper.'

6 Maybe longer than that,' said the Viking.

' Ah no,' and the old man sighed, ■ I am vowed to
solitude, and must not keep you here. The Lord of all
things has shown great goodness to me, lightening my
burden of solitude. Who knows,' he added, ' but you were
sent to me as a sign that my sin is expiated — the grievous
sin for which I was exiled here.'

At the thought he raised his eyes to heaven with a look
of ineffable bliss.

Helgebiorn wondered, but said never a word, only in his
heart he thought, ' 'Tis well he does not know what I am —
a Viking, the slayer of many of his kind.' And because
he valued the friendship of the old man, and their lives
were so closely bound together, he determined never to
let him know, and guarded his secret well.

In these days Helgebiorn seemed almost to be living
the life of the rock-nesting sea-birds, which fluttered and
shrieked for ever about the isle. He wakened at earliest
dawn to their shrill clamour, and like them spent long hours
seeking for fish prey in the crystalline waves, or sunning
himself in some cleft of a rock on the cliff face. They were
so accustomed to the gentle and inoffensive ways of Ere
the Hermit that they were fearless quite, and did not flee
at his approach. So he learned the nature of them all ;
how the guillemot teaches its little one to swim, bearing it
on its back from among the broken egg-shells in a rock

160 THE CELTIC EEVIEW

hollow to the green water ; how the eider duck — tenderest
of brooding mothers — strips its breast bare of the soft down
to line its nest ; and the solan goose sits with its web-foot
on its one egg and hatches it so, instead of by breast and
wing warmth ; and the great auk nestles near to the egg
but does not cover it. He knew that the egg of the fulmar
or petrel must not be taken for food, else the nest would be
quite forsaken, and no other laid. He took other eggs,
instead of this, for the use of Ere and himself ; but the
fulmar he killed sometimes for its oil, which was wanted
to give light in the short days of winter. And other rock-
fowl were killed and steeped in brine, to be stored away
in a pit lined with stones and covered over. But, though
he hunted them so at times, the innocent creatures were
fearless of him. When he strode across the springy turf
the burrowing puffin peeped out at him with friendly eye ;
the guillemots never stirred as he went by their nesting-
rocks. When he let himself down over some precipitous
cliff, and took up his perch facing the sea, after a brief
screeching flight the birds would come back to roost in
long rows beside and above him. He became as one of
the flock. When a shoal of silvery fish darted past, pur-
sued by the tumbling porpoises, the birds and man became
comrade-hunters together. Where the little black currach
was launched and the line sunk, there the white wings
fluttered and circled and flashed, and the divers swooped
down, to emerge gorging their prey, and the dark cormorants
scudded along with outstretched necks.

When, in times of fair weather, the Viking rowed far
and far away out into the ocean's breast, and lay adrift,
watching the sea gleams and the white clouds overhead,
and dreaming strange dreams about the over-sea country,
the island birds were all about him, swimming, diving,
reappearing, or floating above him on slow, deliberate wing.
They rejoiced like their human comrade in the fair weather
and times of windless tide, but had no reason to wonder
about the over-sea country, for in their winter travelling

HELGEBIORN THE HEATHEN 161

might they not yearly visit it. At night, boat and birds
came home together ; the little black currach darting over
the waves with lift and dip of oars that seemed like wings
in their beat when watched by the old hermit from the cliff-
bound coast. He trembled at any prolonged absence,
fearing that some day his comrade might not return. The
strong, terrible waves of sea might claim him as they had
claimed his shipmates. But every such anxious waiting
had had a happy end, when through the gathering twilight
Helgebiorn climbed the cliff path, the light currach bound
on his back, while the hermit reached out a helping hand
to bring him up the last ledge of the cliff, which was sheer,
and the roosted birds jostled one another like schoolboys
in a row as he went by them, and chattered shrilly as if
scolding one another, and here and there one shrieked in
his face as if to boast, ' Ha ! slow comer ! we are here before
thee.'

When Helgebiorn fished inshore, around the island rocks,
he had the seals for rivals. When he pushed slowly in to
the very depths of the vaulted gloom of a great cave, he
would hear a scuffling and flapping, then a plunge, and a
pair of them would swim off into the water, raising their
dark, flat heads at length, and pushing on to scramble with
awkward agility on to a rocky slab. There they would
sit and peer with gentle human eyes at the intruder, when
he emerged into daylight again. There were wonderful
stories to be told of the seals too, how that they were not
mere brute beasts, but men and women suffering under
spells of enchantment, and sometimes it was said they were
permitted to return to their own shape, and could be seen
afar on capes and islands on moonlight nights, sporting and
dancing with agile feet, and singing sweet unearthly songs
that told of all their joy and all their woe. But if any
fisher ventured near to watch them, lo ! the spell resumed
its power, and he found only the furry sea creatures with
the awkward fins and gentle eyes flapping and tumbling on
the rocks.

VOL. VII. L

162 THE CELTIC BE VIEW

Helgebiorn became very familiar with the seals, but he
never saw them dance, and he never heard them sing, and,
indeed, he had doubts that any such thing could be.

The Hermit, questioned on the subject, said gravely :
* Yes, it happens, but not here, and not in Iona, nor any of
the holy isles ; for the power of Columcille, by God's grace,
is more than the power of enchantment ; and where his
servants dwell, the sea people never dare to beguile the
sons of men, enchanters and druids have no power, and
the law of God in nature is steadfastly obeyed.'

' Tell me more of Columcille,' Helgebiorn said ; and
then he heard at length the story of the apostle's life, from
the days of his gracious and saintly boyhood in northern
Ireland to his death before the altar in Iona, after he had
brought the faith to Alba and the isles.

There was one thing Helgebiorn desired to hear more
even than the story of the great island saint, namely, that
of Ere himself. For what sin was he exiled and con-
demend to live in solitude ? What manner of life had he
led in his youth ? Had he known love and renounced it ?
or been beguiled by women or wronged by men ? He
wondered, but did not ask. Yet a day came when he was
to hear.

But before that was the winter and the exodus of the
birds.

A great stillness fell upon the island at their going.
Threefold deep seemed the stillness of the first days, after
the clamour and tumult of assembling myriads which
heralded the departure. Autumn had come, not known
by the reddening of woods on those treeless islets, but by
purple vapours and frosty lights about the south-going
sun, by a chilliness in the crisp sea air, and the shortening
of the daytime hours. It was then that Helgebiorn was most
busy adding fuel to their store of the turfy sod ; he dried
and piled the thickest knots and twigs of heath. The tide
sometimes brought in its sweep most precious freight of

HELGEBIOKN THE HEATHEN 163

driftwood — branches of fir and pine from some woodland
coast of Alba and the isles, and now and then strange
resinous fragrant branches, which came from the unknown
oversea land, first messengers from the America that was
to be to the old world that as yet knew her not.

Helgebiorn, grappling for driftwood in his little hide-
covered currach, took these messengers from the green
waves that brought them ; scanned them with eager eyes
and understood.

And Ere the Hermit, too, when he looked at these
boughs which never grew on any tree of Scotland's or of
Norway's forests, looked to the sunset land with his vague,
seer-like eyes, and said, ' There is surely a country there.
Blessed Brendan in his voyaging found it, and, by God's
will, some shall find it again and plant the faith there
where these strange branches once budded.'

Such was their talk on one autumnal eve, when the sea
was milk-white and calm, and lightly veiled with rising
vapour, and in that strange sea-silence arose a clamour
and shriek of departing birds. On all the islets they
assembled in their millions. When they roosted on the
rocks the islands were like seven pyramids of white marble,
or seven snow-clad hill peaks soaring from the pearl-pale
sea.

But suddenly there was a rising, a rush of wings, a swarm-
ing of birds, flocks thick as bees, but innumerable. They
cried to one another, soaring, swooping, swerving, marshalled
by their leaders into rank for the winter flight. Over the
island of their summer nests they hovered ; Ere and the
Viking looking above their heads saw a living cloud and
were dazzled by the quiver of the wing beats, deafened by
the shrill cries in which the bird flocks uttered their farewell.

Then above the grey sea, away to the verge of the
vague sky, they went in long zigzag lines, or wedge-shaped
troops, or compact companies, according to the travelling
instinct of each vagrant tribe. A sadness gloomed on the
Hermit's brow ; he stretched out his hands after them as

164 THE CELTIC BEVIEW

if in blessing ; Helgebiorn even thought he saw tears in
the sad blue eyes. Ere turned at length with a smile as if
excusing his weakness.

• Till you came, seafaring stranger,' he said, ' these little
people were my nearest neighbours. When I came here
in expiation of my sin I scarcely knew how I would endure
the doom of silence and solitude ; but in good truth, their
cheerful chattering and shrewish scolding made me almost
imagine I was back in the world of womankind again.'
He laughed a little at his joke ; but, sighing, added, ' Now
it will be very silent and lonely in Eilean Mor. It will be
long lonely without our blithe bird-people.'

THE MABINOGION AS LITERATURE

Miss E. J. Lloyd

Literature in a special sense may be defined as that
body of literary compositions, which, to the exclusion of
merely technical works, are occupied mainly with works
that are spiritual in their nature and imaginative in
their form, whether in the world of fact or in the
world of fiction. That the Mabinogion admirably fulfil
this definition is our task to show. The tales embodied
in the Mabinogion will be found to be eminently
spiritual in their nature, dealing as they do with the
spiritual world of magic, and describing as they do
characters which are superhuman, and where the super-
natural is treated as the most natural thing in the world.
These tales are also, in a marked degree, imaginative in
form — here imagination and fancy have a free hand, de-
corating all that they touch, and interweaving history and
mythology elegantly and artistically in a way that appeals
most forcibly to all who read them. Their inestimable
old-world charm and delightfully light fancy claim the

THE MABINOGION AS LITERATUBE 165

attention of the reader from beginning to end. The litera-
ture of a nation reflects its life and customs, embodies its
main characteristics, and acts as a mirror to its history,
social conditions, and religious conceptions. Here we find
reflected the national character and highest aspirations of
a people. The Mabinogion, doubtless, contain a far more
truthful portrait of Wales and the Welsh than will be
found in the poetry of the period. The bards were too
conservative, and their poetic effusions were too artificial
to be popular amongst a free, merry, and witty people like
the Welsh. Their poems were mainly elegies and eulogies
to the great princes, mingled occasionally with a poem on a
theological subject, so that what we get here is chiefly a
description of court life, and that a highly flattering one.
There was but little in this poetry to interest the masses.
In the Mabinogion we do not find the cumbersome and
archaic diction of the contemporary poetry ; on the con-
trary we have here an easy, fluent, and simple style, which
would be easily understood by all. The conservatism of
the poets is seen, for instance, in the fact that they clung
to the traditional hero Cadwaladr long after the literary
renown of Arthur had been established. It should perhaps
be observed, however, that the historical life of the period
is better represented in the poetry of the time than in the
Mabinogion, where history is obscured by mythology and
imaginative fancy.

The term Mabinogion is an artificial one, and is used to
denote the collection of tales embodied in the Eed Book of
Hergest, and translated by the Lady Charlotte Guest under
that title, but, strictly speaking, the term refers exclusively to
the Four Branches, though nowadays it is found a convenient
designation for the Four Branches, Maxen Wledig, Lludd
and Llevelys, Kulhwch and Olwen, and the Romances.
There has been considerable discussion as to the exact
meaning of the term Mabinogi. Some uphold that it is
a derivative of ' maban,' having a plural form Mabinogion,
and this theory seems corroborated by the fact that the word

166 THE CELTIC BE VIEW

is used as the synonym of the Latin c inf antia ' in Peniarth
MS. 14, where ' Mabinogi Iesu Grist ' is given as a trans-
lation of ' Inf antia Jesu Christi.' Thus the name Mabinogi
may be taken as referring to any narrative of early life, or
used as a term of contempt by the bards who regarded the
stories as childish ones. Another view concerning the
original meaning of this term, and the opinion held by Sir
John Rhys, is that ' mabinogi ' means the stock-in-trade
of a ' mabinog,5 or apprentice bard. In corroboration of
this view is mentioned the occurrence of the name in such
a connection in one of the triads in the ' Myvyrian Archai-
ology.5 That the bards combined the functions of story-
tellers with their pure bardic functions is evident from
certain allusions in the Mabinogi, where we are told of
Gwydion and Gilvaethwy's skill in story- telling, when they
went as bards to the court of Dyfed.

The tales embodied in the so-called Mabinogion may be
classified into the Four Branches, namely Pwyll Pendefig
Dyfed, Branwen Ferch Llyr, Manawyddan Fab Llyr, and
Math ab Mathonwy, forming the first class. In the second
class are placed the Dreams, namely, the Dream of Maxen
Wledig, Rhonabwy, and Lludd and Llevelys, and thirdly
the Romances. These tales differ greatly in character,
the most noticeable difference being the absence of Arthur
from some of the tales, and the different treatment of Arthur
in those tales where his name is introduced, in fact, the
antiquity of these stories can be gauged to some extent by
their treatment of that personage. On this basis the
Mabinogion can be divided further into three classes, the
first class comprising the Four Branches, Maxen Wledig,
and Lludd and Llevelys, which do not even mention Arthur's
name. The second class contains Kulhwch and Olwen, and
the Dream of Rhonabwy only, in which the treatment of
Arthur is very different from that of the Romances which
form the third class. Different views are held as to the pro-
bable explanation of the absence of Arthur from the first
class. Some hold that the absence of all mention of Arthur

THE MABINOGION AS LITERATURE 167

is due to the fact that the Four Branches are earlier than
the exploitation of Arthur as a British hero by Geoffrey
of Monmouth, and the popularisation of the Arthurian
legend by the Normans, and perhaps the absence of
chivalry and knight-errantry in these stories is in favour
of this theory. Another view is, that Arthur's name has
been deliberately excluded from the Four Branches, and
that the Mabinogion, in their present form, are later than
Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Begum Britanniae, and
that they have been re-moulded on the plan of his work,
on a chronological or annalistic basis, Arthur's name being
expressly excluded from those tales which were supposed
to belong to the pre-Roman period. It is contended by
those who hold this theory, that Arthur's name was not so
totally separated from the characters of the Four Branches
as the tales in their present form lead one to suppose ; for
Arthur, in Kulhwch and Olwen, and also in some of the
poems of the Black Book of Carmarthen is linked with
Manawyddan, ' the men of Caer Dathyl,' Pwyll, Pryderi,
Taliesin, and others. In Kulhwch and Olwen Arthur is
actually said to be related to the Don family on his mother's
side. Another fact which corroborates this theory, and
which shows that the Four Branches as we have them are
a comparatively late composition, is their finished and
elegant style, and Norman influence is betrayed in the
references we find here to feudal tenure of land, to homage,
and to gradations of rank. It should, perhaps, be noticed
here that there is more affinity, as regards matter, between
the first class and the second ; but there is more affinity
as regards style between the first and the third classes ; for
instance, we find a good deal of character description in
them, whereas there is no attempt at delineation of char-
acter in Kulhwch and Olwen, and Rhonabwy, which are
really much more primitive in style. The second and
third class comprise the Arthurian stories of the Mabinogion,
but the treatment of Arthur in Kulhwch and Olwen, and
in the Dream of Rhonabwy differs in a very marked degree

\

168 THE CELTIC REVIEW

from the treatment of the hero in the Romances, which
form the third class. The tales of the second class are the
oldest of the Arthurian group, and in them we get a very
primitive treatment of the legend. Here Arthur is dis-
tinctly a Cymric hero, and his court is distinctly a Cymric
court, and further the court of Gelliwig^n Cornwall differs
considerably from the magnificence and splendour of the
Normanised court of Caerbeon, described in Peredur,
Owain and Luned, and Geraint and Enid. In the earlier
tales the adventures described are collective ones, which
are undertaken by Arthur in conjunction with his knights ;
and Arthur is as much an aspirant for renown as any one
of his followers. In the Romances, on the contrary, the
adventures chronicled are those of individual knights who
travel about the country in search for encounters, and who
substitute military prowess for the magic and cunning of
Kulhwch and Olwen, and who undertake adventures merely
for the sake of renown. In the earlier story, however, we
find a definite object. Thus the winning of Olwen is the
direct cause of the many marvellous adventures of Kulhwch
and his helpers, and there is also incidentally the object of
ridding the country of certain pests. In the Romances
Arthur is not the prominent and imposing figure of the early
stories; he is barely mentioned at all, and his court is
merely a rendezvous for those knights who travel the country
in search of adventure, referring to Arthur as their patron,
and calling themselves his knights. One very marked
difference between the Romances and the other stories of
the Mabinogion, is the prominence they give to knight-
errantry and chivalry. This element is not found in the
purely Welsh stories ; for instance, nothing could be more
unchivalrous than the punishment inflicted upon Rhiannon
and Branwen. In these later stories, knight-errantry and
chivalry have been substituted for the magic of the earlier
ones, and unseen forces are here represented by seen forces,
thus strength in Owain and Luned is depicted concretely as
a lion.

THE MABINOGION AS LITERATURE 169

It is interesting to trace parallels in Irish literature
with the Mabinogion, and to note the allusions to Irish
characters which occur here. In the Four Branches the
scene of one of the stories, namely Branwen, is placed in
Ireland, and Irish topography is woven into the tissue of
the story, and we get a Goidelic legend like y Pair Dadeni
introduced. In Kulhwch and Olwen there are many
references to characters which figure in Irish literature,
such as Cnychwr, which corresponds to the Irish Conchobar ;
Lludd Llaw Eraint, corresponding to the Irish Nuada
Airget Lam, a prominent figure in Irish literature ; Lleuber
Beuthach, Llenlleauc Wyddel Dunart, and many others.
Moreover, the style of these stories is similar to that of Irish
tales, for instance, there is a great fondness for descriptions,
minute and detailed, in both literatures ; stress is laid on
skill in conversation, great love and appreciation of beauty
is shown, and the effects of love are similarly described.
Perhaps, also, we have a correspondence between Kulhwch' s
threat to utter three shouts as a protest, should Arthur
refuse his request, and the Irish custom of protesting
against a wrong by fasting at the door of the offender.
There was a good deal of travelling to and fro between
Wales and Ireland in the Middle Ages ; but had travel been
the way in which Irish literature influenced ours, we should
find prominence given to the characters which figure in the
Munster cycle of legend. But this is not the case ; the Irish
characters which figure in the Mabinogion belong to the
Ulster cycle, proving that Irish did not influence Welsh
literature directly. The key to the problem may perhaps
be found in the numerous traces of Northern British elements
found in the Mabinogion, as will be shown later. The
legends of Ulster would come into the knowledge of the
British of Strathclyde, and so entered our literature in that
way.

It is interesting, also, to trace in the Mabinogion links
which connect Wales with Northern Britain, and this will
help to show what influences went to form these stories.

170 THE CELTIC EEVIEW

In the Four Branches there are a few names which have
analogues in the northern groups. The name of Pwyll
occurs as the name of one of the warriors mentioned in the
Gododin, and Arawn, the King of Annwn, who takes such
a prominent part in the Mabinogi of Pwyll, may perhaps be
parallel with Arawn, son of Cynvarch, whom Geoffrey con-
nects with the North. With the migration southwards,
the North became unfamiliar country, and gradually stories
were woven concerning the strange and weird inhabitants
of that region, and the country of Caledonia came in time
to be regarded as the land of Annwn. Manawyddan fab
Llyr is undoubtedly the same as the Irish Manannan mac
Lir, and as his name is given as Manawidan and Manauid
in one of the poems of the Black Book of Carmarthen, it
may well have been that he was regarded as connected with
Manaw of the North, in the legends of the North Britons.
In the genealogies Llew is found as a brother of Urien, a
prominent figure in Northern legend, and in another gene-
alogy there is found a Louhe — Lieu Hen son of Guitge —
Guitgen, later Gwydyen. These may possibly have been
associated later with Lieu and Gwydion of Gwynedd local
legend, for in the Mabinogi of Math the relationship between
Lieu and Gwydion is tacitly implied, though not deliberately
stated. There are no links with the North in Maxen
Wledig, but the Helen of the legend was connected with
York. There are no Northern elements in Lludd and
Llevelys either, but it is quite possible that the name
Llevelys may be a mistake for Lliwelydd, a name invented
from Caer Liwelydd, the old name for Carlisle, and the
name Lludd is also, doubtless, connected with Northern
legend, for Creurdilat, the daughter of Lludd, has Northern
connections. There are many traces of Northern elements
in Kulhwch and Olwen. Kulhwch himself and his father
Kilydd have Northern associations, and the name of Kilydd's
father is given as Kelyddon, a name apparently invented
from Coed Celyddon, the regular Welsh name for the Cale-
donian Forest. The names of Kei, Bedwyr, Kyndilic,

THE MABINOGION AS LITERATURE 171

Annwas Adeinawc, and Mabon vab Modron are associated
with the North in an Arthurian poem of the Black Book
of Carmarthen. Bratwen and Moren Mynawc may be
compared with the Gododin names Bradwen and Moryen ;
and with the names Twrch mab Peris and Twrch mab
Annwas, may be compared the name of Twrch that occurs
in Gorchan Kynvelyn. Rhun fab Nwython, Eidyol,
Cyfwlch, Clutno Eidin, and Uryen Reget also have Northern
connections. There is a reference in Kulhwch and Olwen
to Gwlgawt Gogodin, who is probably the same as Gwlyget
Gododin mentioned in the Gododin. Cado of Prydyn and
Caw of Prydyn have clear Northern connections, as is also
the case with Mabon ab Mellt, whose name occurs in one of
of the poems of the Black Book also. In the Dream of
Rhonabwy some of the proper names mentioned have
clear connections with the North. For instance, there are
found here Iddawc Cordd Prydein, Gwarthegyt son of
Kaw, Elphin son of Gwyddno, Owain son of Urien, Gures
son of Reget, Edern son of Nudd, Mabon son of Modron,
Peredur Paladr Hir, Drystan son of Tallwch, Moryen
Manawc, Llacheu son of Arthur, Adaon son of Taliessin,
and Gildas the son of Kaw. The Romances contain very
few elements of Northern colouring, the only links being
some of the names such as Owain ab Uryen, Cynon ab
Clydno Eiddin and Peredur, whose father Efrawg is said to
have possessed an earldom in the North. In Owain and
Luned there is a reference to the three hundred swords of
the family of Kynvarch, which is also found in Bonedd
Gwyr y Gogledd. Like Caw of Pictland, the fame of Cynon
ab Clydno Eiddin has waned considerably, as they were
both evidently very important personages in early Northern
legend, Cynon having the distinction of being the chief
hero of the Gododin, an old Welsh battle poem com-
memorating the Battle of Catraeth in North Britain.

To appreciate fully the value of the Mabinogion, we must
examine their structures and formation, we must study
their plot and style, and so proceed to see what phases of

172 THE CELTIC KEVIEW

life, and what aspects of nature appealed to the Welsh more
especially. The first thing one notices about the Four
Branches is that they form a complete and coherent whole,
and seem to be four chapters in one story, the hero of which
is Pryderi. The key to the whole is the death of Pryderi ;
it was his sad end that endeared his memory to the Welsh,
dying as he did, in the service of his people, and by the
cunning of Gwydion ; for the sympathetic scribe takes care
to inform us that Pryderi' s death was not due to his having
been defeated in battle, but to the use of magic by Gwydion.
Then naturally we come to the cause of the quarrel between
Pryderi and Gwydion, namely that the latter had stolen the
swine which were the special property of Dyfed, being the
gift of Arawn, the King of Annwn, to Pwyll, the Prince of
Dyfed and the father of Pryderi, as a reward for services
done him by Pwyll. The Mabinogi of Pwyll may be divided
into three parts ; the first, by telling us how the swine came
into the possession of Dyfed is connected directly with the
Mabinogi of Math, which tells how the swine were stolen
by Gwydion. The second part of the story of Pwyll tells
us of the marriage of Pwyll and Rhiannon, and the conse-
quent enmity between Gwawl and Pwyll, and so connects
the story with the Mabinogi of Manawyddan, which tells
how Gwawl revenged himself upon his rival's son Pryderi
by causing his kinsman Llwyd fab Cilcoed to place a spell
upon Dyfed. The third part of Pwyll tells us of the birth,
disappearance, and subsequent restoration of Pryderi.
We therefore see that the Mabinogi of Pwyll unites together
three of the four branches. The story of Branwen, the
daughter of Llyr has no part in the plot of the Four
Branches ; it is merely an embellishment upon the history
of the family of Llyr, as opposed to the family of Don.
Another analysis of the Four Branches might be made on
the basis of stories connected with the Rhiannon, Don, and
Llyr cycles. The importance and significance of this
division will be seen later when the indications of paganism
found in the Four Branches will be considered, since

THE MABINOGION AS LITERATURE 173

Rhiannon, Don, and Llyr are in all probability ancient
Celtic deities. The stories connected with Rhiannon are
embodied in the Mabinogi of Pwyll and Manawyddan ; the
stories grouped with Don in the Mabinogi of Math ab
Mathonwy, ; and those connected with the family of Llyr
in the Mabinogi of Manawyddan fab Llyr and Branwen
ferch Llyr. It is interesting to note the topography of
the stories grouped under these three headings. The tales
which belong to the Rhiannon cycle are topographically
connected with Dyfed and Gwent ; the stories of the Don
cycle contain allusions to Gwynedd; while the legends
concerning the Llyr cycle have a far wider area, their
topography not only extending over the whole of Wales,
but embracing Ireland also. This is in keeping with the
fact that Bendigeitvran the son of Llyr is regarded as the
crowned king of the island of Britain, and not merely as
a prince like Pwyll. The study of the topography of the
Four Branches is interesting as showing the various elements
which go to form the stories, but the transplanting of the
tales from one district to another is one of the chief diffi-
culties in the way of an analysis of the legends into their
component parts. The story of Gwri Wallt Euryn and
Teyrnon Twryf Vliant belong in all probability to the
Gwentian recension, for Teyrnon is said to live in Gwent
Is Coed, the district between Newport and Chepstow. No
doubt in the case of the Gwri legend we have an instance
of the transplanting of the story from the region of the
Wirral promontory of Cheshire, which is called in Welsh
Cil Gwri, meaning the retreat of Gwri. It is possible the
story was transplanted into Gwent through a confusion of
identity between Caerlleon — Chester— and Caerleon-on-Usk.
The stories connected with Pwyll and Pryderi, on the other
hand, belong to the Dimetian recension, as they contain
many references to places in Dyfed, the most conspicuous
being the reference to Narberth in Pembrokeshire. Although
the story of Pwyll bears a very close relation to the
Rhiannon legend, yet she herself was most probably not

174 THE CELTIC BE VIEW

regarded as a native of Dyfed, for we are told that, after
her marriage at her father's court, she and Pwyll set out
towards Dyfed. It is quite possible that legends concern-
ing Rhiannon prevailed in the districts of Maesyfed and
Ardudwy, for Eveydd, the name of Rhiannon' s father, still
survives in the name Maesyfed, for Maes Hyveyd, and in
the Mabinogi of Branwen the fabulous birds of Rhiannon
are connected with Harlech in Ardudwy. Moreover, accord-
ing to one legend the grave of Pryderi is said to be at
Maentwrog, in the same district, showing that the legend
of Rhiannon was widespread in Wales.

(To be continued)

OLD IRISH SONG1

Alfred Perceval Graves, M.A.

In the dim morning twilight of Ancient Erin, legend
describes her Fili's, or musical bards, as constant attendants
upon the king and chieftain.

As Mr. Alfred M. Williams, the American critic, pictur-
esquely puts the tradition, ' Surrounded by the Orfiddy,
or instrumental musicians, who fulfilled the function of a
modern military band, they watched his progress in battle
for the purpose of describing his feats in arms, composed
birthday odes and epithalamia, aroused the spirits of clans-
men with war songs, and lamented the dead in the caoines,
or keens, which are still heard in the wilder and more primi-
tive regions of Ireland.'

We must, of course, discount much of the legendary
colour which enthusiasts like Walker take on trust. But
this is the picture of the early Irish bard presented to us
by the chroniclers. Amongst other privileges, he wore

1 A lecture to the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Basil Woodd Smith, Esq.,
F.R.A.S., F.S.A., Vice-President, in the chair.

OLD IRISH SONG 175

a tartan with only one shade of colour less than that upon
the king's robe, and his assassination involved a blood-
penalty inferior only to the royal eric. But before attain-
ing such high honours, he had to satisfy the moral require-
ments of ' purity of hand, bright without wounding, purity
of mouth without poisonous satire, purity of learning without
reproach, purity as a husband in wedlock.5

He had, moreover, to pass through a decidedly arduous
courtship of the Muse before he was entitled to claim her
favour ; indeed, some writers go so far as to say that, like
the patriarch, he had to serve seven years for her, commit-
ting to memory an almost incredible number of earlier
compositions, and giving the closest study to the laws of
verse, before he could become a poet on his own account.

When it is added that these laws of Irish verse, as finally
formulated by the early Celtic professors, were the most
complicated ever invented — not only limiting the sense
within the stanza, but fixing the amount of alliteration and
the number of syllables in each line, to say nothing of their
assonantal requirements — we may well understand that
although Early Irish verse may be granted, according to
Professor Atkinson, to be the most perfectly harmoniuos
combinations of sounds that the world has ever known, it
must also be conceded that Irish ' direct metre ' was the
most difficult kind of verse under the sun — the despairing
opinion of another leading Irish philologist.

Dr. Whitley Stokes's comment is ' that in almost all the
ancient Celtic poetry, substance is ruthlessly sacrificed to
form, and the observance of the rigorous rules of metre
seems regarded as an end in itself.' The consequence of
such an artificial system, combined with the high privi-
leges of the bardic caste, resulted in the multiplication of
minor parts to a degree which would have paralysed all
Mr. Traill's efforts to keep pace with them, had he been a
contemporary critic.

O' Curry quotes this droll account of their pecuniary
dealings : ' At this time we are told that the poets became

176 THE CELTIC EEVIEW

more troublesome and importunate than ever. They were
in the habit of travelling about the country in companies
of thirty, composed of pupils and teachers, and each company
had a silver pot, called " the Pot of Avarice," having chains
of bronze attached to it by golden hooks. It was sus-
pended from the points of the spears of nine of the company,
which were thrust through the links at the other end of
the chains. The reason that the pot was called the Pot
of Avarice was because it was into it that whatever of gold
or silver they received was put, and, whilst the poem was
being chanted, the best nine musicians in the company
played music round the pot. If their minstrelsy was well
received, and adequately paid for, they left their blessing
behind them in verse ; if it was not, they satirised their
audience in the most virulent terms of which their poetical
vocabulary was capable ; and, be it observed, that to the
satire of an Irish bard, to whom there still clung in the
popular belief the mystical attributes of the druid, there
attached a fatal malignity.'

At the time of the conversion of Ireland to the Christian
faith, the bards were said to number a third of the male
population, and, in 590 a.d., a Synod was held at Drumceatt,
by Aed, king of Ulster, which greatly reduced their forces.
Indeed, such was the popular irritation against them, that
had it not been for the friendly intervention of the states-
man-poet, Colum Cille, they would probably have been
banished altogether.

The Fili, or bard, no doubt was a minstrel as well as a
poet, in the first instance, but in the course of time there
would appear to have been a further bardic differentiation,
and we learn that perfection in the three Musical Feats,
or three styles of playing, gave the dignity of Ollamh, or
Doctor of Music, to the professors of the harp. Now what
were the three Musical Feats ? Here they are well described
in a weird old folk tale.

Lugh (the Tuatha da Danann king), and the Daghda
(their great chief and druid), and Ogma (their bravest

OLD IRISH SONG J 77

champion), followed the Fomorians and their leader from
the battlefield of Moytura, because they had carried off
the Daghda's harper, Uaithne by name. The pursuers
reached the banqueting house of the Fomorian chiefs, and
there found Breas, the son of Elathan, and Elathan the
son of Delbath, and also the Daghda's harp hanging upon
the wall. This was the harp in which the music was spell-
bound, so that it would not answer, when called forth,
until the Daghda evoked it, when he said : ' Come,
Durdabla ; come, Coircethairchuir the two names of the
harp. Come, Samhan ; come, Camh, from the mouths
of harps and pouches and pipes. The harp came forth
from the wall then, and killed nine persons in its passage ;
and it came to the Daghda, and he played for them the
three musical feats which give distinction to a harper, viz.,
the Suaintraighe (which, from its deep murmuring, caused
sleep), the Geantraighe (which, from its merriment, caused
laughter), and the Golltraighe (which, from its melting plain-
tiveness, caused crying). He played them the Golltraighe,
until their women cried tears; and he played them the Gean-
traighe, until their women and youths burst into laughter ;
he played them the Suaintraighe, until the entire host fell
fell asleep. It was through that sleep that they (the
three champions) escaped from those Fomorians who were
desirous to slay them.'

This passage is of threefold interest. It indicates the
popular belief in the introduction of music into Ireland
by the Tuatha da Danann, a mysterious race, by some
regarded as an offshoot of the Danai, whom tradition
declares to have conquered and civilised the country, and
then to have disappeared from it into fairyland. Again,
it contains the first reference in Irish literature to the harp
or cruit, destined to become our national instrument.
Lastly, it describes three styles of Irish music, of each of
which we have characteristic examples that have descended
to the present day. For the Geantraighe, which was pro-
vocation of mirth and, frolic and excited spirit, is repre-

VOL. VII. m

178 THE CELTIC KEVIEW

sented by the jigs, reels, planxties, and quick-step marches ;
the Golltraighe, or the sorrowful music, still lingers in the
keens or lamentations, and some of our superb marches
of the wilder and sadder type ; and the Suaintraighe sur-
vives in many a beautiful Irish hush song.

The Irish sleep-compelling airs have not attracted the
notice they deserve. Moore ignored them altogether, but
Dr. Petrie prints many of them, and points out their resem-
blance to the slumber-tunes still in vogue in India and
elsewhere in the East. They certainly support the tradi-
tion of the oriental affinities of the Early Irish.

The first period of Irish bardic literature may roughly
be said to be that of epic poetry interspersed with songs.
Fine exemplifications of these are to be found in the Silva
Gadelica, a recent translation of a series of Early Irish tales
by Mr. Standish Hayes O' Grady. The music to which
they were sung has perished or become dissociated from
these lyrics, but some of their measures are identical with
those of rustic Irish folk tunes. We now come to the
bardic period, thus described by the poet Spenser in A
View of the State of Ireland : —

1 Iren. — There is amongst the Irish a certain kind of
people called Bardes, which are to them instead of Poets,
whose Profession is to set forth the Praises or Dispraises
of men in their Poems or Rithmes ; the which are had
in so high Regard and Estimation amongst them, that
none dare displease them for fear to run into Reproach
through their offence, and to be made infamous in the
mouths of all men.

8 For their verses are taken up with a general applause,
and usually sung at all feasts and meetings by certain
other persons, whose proper function that is, who also
receive for the same great rewards and reputation amongst
them.'

It would appear that the poet Spenser made a study of
the Irish poetry of his day, and a music-book of the six-
teenth century, misnamed Queen Elizabeth' *s Virginal Book,

OLD IKISH SONG 179

contains three Irish airs, one of which, Callino Casturame,
is evidently alluded to by Pistol in Shakespere's Henry F.,
who, on meeting a French soldier, cries, ' Quality ! Caleno
custure me ' — clearly, ' A Chailin dg, an stiuir thu mi.'

Here it may be well to give, in full, the famous passage
in Spenser's View of the State of Ireland, relating to the
character of the bardic lyrics of his day.

' Eudoxus. — But tell me (I pray you) have they any art
in their compositions ? or be they anything witty or well-
favoured, as poems should be ?

1 Irenceus. — Yea, truly, I have caused divers of them to
be translated unto me, that I might understand them ;
and surely they were favoured of sweet wit, and good
invention, but skilled not of the goodly ornaments of
poetry ; yet were they sprinkled with some pretty flowers
of their natural device, which gave good grace and comeli-
mess unto them ; the which it is a great pity to see so
abused, to the gracing of wickedness and vice, which with
good usage would serve to adorn and beautify virtue.

' As of a most notorious thief and wicked outlaw, which
had lived all his lifetime of spoils and robberies, one of
their Bardes in his praise will say, That he was none of
the idle milksops that was brought up by the fireside, but
that most of his days he spent in arms and valiant enter-
prizes ; that he did never eat his meat before he had won
it with his sword ; that he lay not all night slugging in a
cabbin under his mantle, but used commonly to keep
others waking to defend their lives ; and did light his
candle at the flames of their houses, to lead him in the
Darkness ; that the day was his night, and the night his
day, that he loved not to be long wooing of wenches to
yield to him, but where he came he took by force the spoil
of other men's love, and left but lamentation to their lovers ;
that his musick was not the harp, nor lays of love, but
the cries of people, and clashings of armour : and finally
that he died not bewailed of many, but made many wail
when he died, that dearly bought his death.

180 THE CELTIC REVIEW

' Do you not think (Eudoxus) that many of these praises
might be applied to men of best deserts, yet are they all
yielded to a most notable traitor, and amongst some of
the Irish not finally accounted of. For the song, when
it was first made and sung to a person of high degree there,
was bought (as their manner is) for forty Crowns.'

The lyrical epoch alluded to by Spenser is the second
era of bardic poetry in Ireland. It embraces the period
of the English struggle for supremacy in the country —
that terrible time of internecine war which alike brutalised
the Saxon and the Celt. In times such as these it was
impossible to compose long narrative poems. As Mr.
Williams well puts it, 'The inspiration of the bards was
turned to more direct appeals for war, rejoicings for victory,
and lamentations for misfortune and defeat. The poetry took
a more lyric form, and became an ode instead of an epic'

Irish Music and Song had now fallen on evil days. The
downfall of the great Celtic families, and many of the great
Anglo-Irish ones who had espoused their quarrel with suc-
cessive English Governments, forced our national bards, for
want of better support, to wander from castle to castle, in-
stead of remaining as leading figures in the great households.

Turlough O'Carolan was the most remarkable of these
wandering lyrists. Born in the year 1670, he early lost
his sight through small-pox, but solaced himself for this
deprivation by the study of music, in which he made
astonishing progress. The Irish Monthly Review gives
this instance of his wonderful musical memory, and his
extraordinary power of musical improvisation. At the
house of an Irish nobleman, where Geminiani was present,
Carolan challenged that eminent composer to a trial of
skill. The musician played over on his violin the Fifth
Concerto of Vivaldi, and it was instantly repeated by
Carolan on his harp, although he had never heard it before.
The surprise of the company was increased when Carolan
asserted that he would compose a concerto, himself, upon
the spot ; and he did then and there invent a piece that

OLD IRISH SONG 181

has since gone by his name. But this story is evidently
inaccurate, for whilst it is probable that it has a founda-
tion in fact, Carolan cannot have had this trial of skill
with Geminiani, whoever his Italian opponent may have
been. Carolan composed upon the buttons of his coat,
the buttons serving for the purpose of the lines, and the
intervals between them for the spaces.

Carolan did not adhere entirely to the Irish style of
composition, and his musical pieces show a considerable
Italian influence ; yet, as Mr. Bunting writes, he felt the
full excellence of the ancient music of his country. He
was a most prolific composer. One harper at the beginning
of this century was alone acquainted with about a hundred
of his tunes, and many were at that time believed to have
been lost.

Passing over the period of 1798, which does not furnish
many lyrics of first-rate quality, we now come to that
important epoch in Irish lyric literature — the Granard
and Belfast meetings of harpers, promoted with the object
of reviving the taste for Irish music, which had begun to
decay. These meetings, which took place about the year
1792, were very successful, and awoke in the distinguished
Belfast musician, Mr. Bunting, such an enthusiasm for
Irish music, that he henceforth devoted his main efforts
to its collection and publication. Of the Belfast meeting
he writes thus vividly : —

c All the best of the old class of harpers, a race of men
then nearly extinct, and now gone for ever, were present
— Hempson, O'Neill, Fanning, and seven others, the least
able of whom has not left his equal behind. Hempson
realised the antique pictures drawn by Cambrensis and
Galilei, for he played with long crooked nails, and in his
performance the tinkling of the small wires under the deep
notes of the bass were particularly thrilling. He was
the only one who played the very old music of the country,
and this in a style of such finished excellence as persuaded
me that the praises of the old Irish harp in Cambrensis,

182 THE CELTIC REVIEW

Fuller, and others, were no more than just to that admir-
able instrument and its then professors. But more than
anything else the conversation of Arthur O'Neill — who
although not so absolute a harper as Hempson, was of
gentle blood, and a man of the world, who had travelled
over all parts of Ireland — won and delighted me. All
that the genius of later poets and romance writers has
feigned of the wandering minstrel was realised in this man.
There was no house of any note in the north of Ireland,
as far as Meath on the one hand, and Sligo on the other,
in which he was not well known and eagerly sought after.'

What are our grounds for believing that many of the
airs played at the harp meetings are very ancient ?

First, the testimony of the harpers, most of them very
old men, at the Belfast meetings one hundred years ago,
who smiled on being interrogated by Bunting as to the
antiquity of the so-called ancient airs, and answered, —
1 They are more ancient than any to which our popular
tradition extends.' Moreover, Bunting informs us that
1 though coming from different parts of Ireland, and the
pupils of different masters, the harpers played those ancient
tunes in the same key, with the same kind of expression,
and without a single variation, in any essential passage,
or even in any note.' He adds, ' This circumstance seemed
the more extraordinary when it was discovered that the
most ancient tunes were in this respect the most perfect,
admitting of the addition of a bass with more facility than
such as were less ancient. Hence we may conclude that
their authors must necessarily have been excellent per-
formers, versed in the scientific part of their profession,
and that they had originally a view to the addition of
harmony in the composition of their pieces.

' It is remarkable that the performers all tuned their
instruments upon the same principle, totally ignorant of
the principle itself, and without being able to assign any
reason either for their mode of tuning, or of their playing
the bass.' And here it may be mentioned that the ancient

OLD IEISH SONG 183

Irish harps had commonly thirty strings, and were tuned
in the key of G, and that the Irish airs supposed to be the
oldest are in the ordinary major scale of G, and were played
in this key. But, for the sake of variety, the harpers
played tunes in other scales, and melodies were composed
in the scale of A, but with the tuning of the harp unchanged.

But the strongest proof of the skill of the Irish harpers
of the thirteenth century is the testimony of Gerald Barry,
best known as Giraldus Cambrensis, an inveterate opponent
of everything else Irish : ' They are incomparably more
skilful than any other nation I have ever seen. For their
manner of playing on these instruments, unlike that of
the Britons or (Welsh) to which I am accustomed, is not
slow and harsh, but lively and rapid, while the melody is
both sweet and sprightly. It is astonishing that in so
complex and swift a movement of the fingers the musical
proportions as to tune can be preserved ; and that through-
out the difficult modulations on their various instruments,
the harmony is completed with such a sweet rapidity. They
enter into a movement and conclude it in so delicate a
manner, and tinkle the little strings so sportively under
the deeper tones of the bass strings — they delight so
delicately, and soothe with such gentleness, that the per-
fection of their art appears in the concealment of Art.'

John of Salisbury (twelfth century) is equally eulogistic,
and Fuller says, c Yea, we might well think that all the
Concert of Christendom in this war and the Crusade con-
ducted by Godfrey of Boulogne would have made no
music if the Irish harp had been wanting.' There is indeed
a continued record of praise (British and Continental)
of the Irish music and its professors from the twelfth
to the seventeenth centuries, which we may conclude by
Drayton's stanza in his Polyolbion : —

1 The Irish I admire,
And still cleave to that lyre

As to our Muse's mother ;
And think, till I expire,

Apollo 's such another.'

184 THE CELTIC EEVIEW

The antiquity of individual airs has distinct historical
confirmation by Bunting and others. The tune called
' Thugamar fein an samhradh leinn ' was sung to welcome
the landing of the Duke of Ormond by a band of Virgins
who went out to meet him from Dublin. Again, the ancient
Irish air ' Summer is coming ' is the same song practically
as 'Summer is a comin' in,' which is reputed as the first
piece of music set in score in Great Britain. Bunting
claims that air, therefore, for Ireland on the ground of
the extreme improbability of its having been borrowed by
the ancient Irish from a country that has no national
music of its own (the Welsh excepted). ' Their ignorance
of the English language,' he adds, ' and their rooted aver-
sion to their invaders, were effectual bars to any such
plagiarism or adoption.'

Besides the remarkable similarity between our lullabies
and those of the East already touched on, there is a marked
correspondence between some of the early Norse and
ancient Irish tunes. The distinguished Swedish harpist,
Sjoden, who visited Dublin on the occasion of the Moore
Centenary, showed me that some of our old Irish airs —
for instance — the ' Cruiskeen Lawn ' — were almost iden-
tical with early Norse ones ; the question for settlement
of course being, whether the Irish got them from the Danes
or the Danes from the Irish, though the musical reputa-
tion of our ancestors, amongst whom the Danes formed
maritime settlements at Dublin, Waterford, Limerick,
and elsewhere, points to the latter conclusion. Then
there is the strong internal evidence of extreme antiquity
from the old-world characters of such airs as the ' March
from Fingal.'

To what poetical measures were these old airs sung ?
We have, fortunately, some clue to this, not only in the
modern Irish words to them published by Dr. Joyce, but
in the important fact that we have Irish poems, as early
as the ninth century, which will sing to some of the ancient
airs ; for example, an invocation for God's protection upon

OLD IEISH SONG 185

his coracle, by Cormac Mac Cullinane, King and Bishop of
Cashel, who died in 903. This measure is identical with
that of Shenstone's lines : —

' My banks they are furnished with bees,
Whose murmurs invite us to sleep,
My grottoes are shaded with trees
And my hills are white over with sheep.'

Professor 0' Curry puts the case very strongly, but not,
I think, too strongly, when he says, ' Those verses of King
Cormac M'Cullinane, now almost one thousand years old,
which sing to the air of " For Ireland I would not tell who
she is," is adduced as an interesting fact, proving that a
fragment of a lyric poem, ascribed to a writer of the ninth
century, and actually preserved in a MS. book so old as
the year 1150, presents a peculiar structure of rhythm,
exactly corresponding with that of certain ancient musical
compositions still popular and well-known, and, according
to tradition, of the highest antiquity.

1 1 believe such a fact is unknown in the musical history
of any other nation of Europe ; and yet in ours very many
such instances could be adduced of ancient lyric music
still in existence, in minutely exact agreement with forms
of lyric poetry used not only in but peculiar to the most
ancient periods of our native literature.'

A large proportion of the Irish airs are in eight-line
measures, consisting of two quatrains ; though originally
it would appear that the verses consisted of four lines
only, in which event the range of the air was very limited.
But, as time went on, the strain appears to have been
repeated, with a variation, and then added to by means
of a strain of different character, the final musical measure
being a repetition of the first strain.

Stanzas built up to suit such airs largely consist of
sixteen lines, which are quaintly called ' curving eight-
lined verses ' — the meaning of the word curved referring
to the second part of eight lines, which are added to the

186 THE CELTIC REVIEW

first eight to fill up the curve turn, or second part of the
tune.

Finally, it may be worth while to state the case of the
Scottish claim to Irish airs, and the Irish claim to Scottish
melodies. A pedantic attempt has been made to specify
certain Irish musical characteristics, the absence of which
will prove one of the airs in dispute to be Scottish. But
Sir Robert Stewart justly points out that the so-called
unfailing characteristic of Irish, as of Chinese, melody to
omit the fourth and seventh of the scale, is by no means
a sure test. In many Irish airs these intervals are wanting
in others they both exist. In some they are omitted
in the first strain and are present in the second part of the
air. Again, the presence of the submediant or sixth of
the scale, supposed to be a never-failing test of an Irish
air, is equally emphatic in the Scottish air ' Auld Lang
Syne,' and many other Scottish tunes.

The Scottish airs may be roughly classed as Highland
tunes and Lowland tunes. The first class have a close
affinity with the Irish music, and no wonder, for not only
are the Highland Scotch of North Irish descent, but the
Scotch of the West coast were for centuries closely con-
nected with their kinsfolk across the North Channel, and
a constant exchange of minstrelsy must have therefore
gone between them. The Lowland Scotch tunes form a
large and distinct body of national melodies, composed
by national musicians, and not found in Irish collections.
In Ireland there is a much larger body of airs acknow-
ledged on all hands to be purely Irish and not found in
Scottish collections.

Outside these airs there is a large number common to
and claimed by both countries. As Dr. Joyce pithily
puts it, ' In regard to a considerable proportion of them
it is now impossible to determine whether they were
originally Irish or Scottish. A few are claimed in Ireland
that are certainly Scottish, but a very large number claimed
by Scotland are really Irish, of which the well-known air

PAN-CELTIC NOTES 187

11 Eileen Aroon" or " Robert Adair" is an example. From
the earliest times it was a common practice among the
Irish harpers to travel in Scotland. How close was the
musical connection between the two countries is hinted
by the Four Masters when, in recording the death of Mac
Carroll, they call him the chief minstrel of Ireland and
Scotland ! and there is abundant evidence to show that
this connection was kept up till towards the end of the
last century.5 Ireland was long the school for Scottish
Harpers, as it was for those of Wales : ' Till within the
memory of persons still living, the school for Highland
poetry and music was Ireland, and thither professional
men were sent to be accomplished in these arts.' Such
facts as these sufficiently explain why so many Irish airs
have become naturalised in Scotland.

' It is not correct to separate and contrast the music
of Ireland and that of Scotland as if it belonged to two
different races. They are in reality an emanation direct
from the heart of one Celtic people ; and they form a
body of national melody superior to that of any other
nation of the world.'

PAN-CELTIC NOTES

IRISH LONDON NOTES

The Gaelic League of London meets every Monday in the Furnivall
Street Hall for instruction in the Irish language, Elementary, Intermediate
and Advanced, for the Study of Irish History and Literature under Mr.
Hegarty and Miss Eleanor Hull, and for singing in a Gaelic Choir, under Miss
Una Rae Hall, the rehearsals for which take place at the Central Offices,
77 Fleet Street.

Adult and children's classes are also held at various local centres, e.g.
Clapham, Kensington, Fulham, Forrest Gate, and Haverstock Hill, at which
every now and again a Plaraca or a miscellaneous entertainment is held
consisting of the performance of Irish or bilingual plays, singing, reciting and
dancing.

188 THE CELTIC REVIEW

The London Irish children have, I know, great aptitude in learning Irish
and some of them who had never been before in Ireland were as reward for
their success at Gaelic League Examinations sent over to the Old Country
last summer.

From year to year St. Patrick's Day Concerts have been held in the
Metropolis, and these are very largely attended indeed. A considerable pro-
portion of the lays are sung in Irish and the Irish pipes and harp are in
evidence, and Irish step-dancing by the champion dancers is now a recognised
feature in the entertainment.

For the last three years the London County Council has endowed classes
in Irish language, literature and history, out of the rates, and this year
nine such classes are being held, Mr. Joseph Campbell (Seosamh Mac
Cathmhaoil) being the most sought after as a teacher.

It is a notable fact that since the Boer War, which was largely won by
the gallantry of the Irish troops, and in consequence of which Queen
Victoria ordered the wearing of the Shamrock by the Irish troops on parade
on St Patrick's Day, that festival day is commonly celebrated in the London
Council Schools by the wearing of the Shamrock and the singing of Irish
songs. This circumstance of the now general celebration of Empire Day has
called the attention of teachers to the other Patronal Saints' Days, and St.
Andrew's Day, St. David's Day and last but not least, St. George's Day are
being celebrated. As a result the Empire day doings gather up the
music, songs and dances of the four nations with a spirit that greatly
enhances their effect.

MANX NOTES
Yn Cheskaght Gailckagh

The Secretary's last Report

Miss Morrison, as Hon. Secretary, read the following interesting report
on the operations of the year : —

Dr. Clague.

It will, I am sure, be in accordance with the wishes of every one present
that this report should begin by rendering a tribute of respect and gratitude
to the memory of Dr. Clague, who has passed away since our last annual
meeting. He was once President of the Manx Language Society, and was
also one of its judges for Manx music. He will be remembered, too, as a
Councillor of the Celtic Association from its foundation, in 1900, to h|s
death. The Manx Language Society has lost in him one of its best friends
and most enthusiastic supporters. He was a true Manxman ; he not only
took a deep interest in the folk-lore and literature of the language, but

PAN-CELTIC NOTES 189

himself had a thorough knowledge of his mother-tongue. To us his loss is
irreparable. He was always so sane and sound in his advice, and had the
wisdom which comes from knowledge and experience. As a lover of Manx
music he did most valuable work, and was a recognised musical critic, and
many beautiful traditional Manx airs owe their preservation to him.

We hope to publish during the coming year a Manx primer, founded on
the Berlitz system, by Mr. J. J. Kneen. It is an admirable primer, entirely
in Manx, and will be a great help to students. It will be brought out at a
popular price. An excellent Manx translation of part of the Pilgrim's
Progress, by the late Mr. James Callow, a M.L.S. member, has appeared in
the Examiner, and will shortly be published in booklet form. The transla-
tion is very good, smooth, and idiomatic — 'right good Manx.'

It is interesting to note that, for the first time, lectures on the modern
Celtic revival are being given in connection with the Paris University.
Some correspondence has taken place between our Society and Monsieur
Morvan Goblet, the lecturer, who is President of the Economical Section of
the Union Regionaliste Bretonne, and himself a Breton. In one of his
lectures he gave a sketch of the movement in our Island, for which we were
glad to be able to furnish him with some information, and which has since
been published in La Revue. Such a course of lectures as this in so impor-
tant a centre as Paris must be regarded as a great encouragement by those
who have the Celtic movement, or any particular branch of it, at heart.

It is very much to be hoped that the following appeal will meet with a
hearty response from those to whom it is addressed : —

'DUN DEALGAN' PURCHASE FUND '

Dundalk, 1911.

Dear Sir or Madam, — In the month of January last year a blow was
struck for Irish History and Archaeology. 'Dun Dealgan,' latterly known
as Castletown Mount, Dundalk, an ancient Celtic stronghold, where
Cuchulain was born and where he lived, has been secured to the use of the
public. We ask Irish men and women, archaeologists, historians, and
students of folk-lore, at home and abroad, to subscribe towards the repay-
ment of the purchase money and towards its upkeep.

Dun Dealgan is an imposing fort overlooking the town and bay of
Dundalk. This fort, the birthplace and home of Cuchulain, the Irish
Achilles, the peerles^. hero of the Red Branch Cycle, whose great deeds,
compressed into so short a life, are still ringing down the years, as they
have done since before the Christian era, this still dominant Dun, dominant
yet hoary with years, and withal practically undefaced, has been rescued
from private ownership, from the possibility of partial or complete disfigure-

190 THE CELTIC REVIEW

ment, and is now — if it is your wish — to be maintained for ever, free from
the Goth and free to the Gael. Is it your wish 1

Dun Dealgan was offered for sale in the Chancery Court in Dublin, and the
undersigned, fearing that, as the house on its summit had been closed and un-
tenantable for some years, it might be bought for a small sum, and perhaps
completely damaged, guaranteed £200, and placed a tender in the names of
Eedmond Magrath and Harry G. Tempest. The tender was accepted, and
the deposit has been advanced by five of the signatories jointly. The
balance must be shortly lodged to complete the sale.

It is proposed to vest the Dun with the Co. Louth Archaeological
Society, to be preserved to the use of the public, as a headquarters and
museum, if it can be arranged, or in any other way which may be found on
consideration to be the best. Provision will be made that, should the
Society ever become extinct, the trust will still be carried on. It is hardly
necessary to state that no commission, or anything of the kind, will be paid
to any of those interested, and no expenses will be charged against the
purchase fund other than mere out-of-pocket ones.

It will take a sum of £1000 to clear the purchase money, and by invest-
ment ensure the proper repair and preservation of the Dun, and we call on
all Irish people with confidence, both those in Louth and beyond it, in
Ireland, and beyond the seas, in true patriotism to subscribe the amount
twice over if it were necessary.

Will you do your share 1 Please do not put it off.

Yours faithfully,
Henry Bellingham, Bart., I*res. Co. Louth A.S.
Mary Whitworth, Vice-Pres. do. do.

Harry G. Tempest, do. do. do.

Ron. Sec. to the Fund. '

IRISH TEXTS SOCIETY

At the Annual Meeting of this Society, held at 20 Hanover Square,
London — Mr. Samuel Boyle in the chair — the Hon. Sec, Miss Eleanor
Hull, presented the Thirteenth Annual Report, which stated that the first
of the three volumes of Rev. John Mac Erlean's edition of the Poems of
David O'Bruadair appeared at the beginning of this year, and formed the
Society's publication for the year 1908. Although still unavoidably in
arrears in the publication of their volumes, the Council are doing their
utmost to bring them up to date, and it is hoped that the speedy comple-
tion of the remaining two volumes of this work will enable them to
achieve this result. The Editor has already made considerable progress with
his second volume, which he hopes to send to press almost immediately.
The first volume, now issued, deals with the poems of O'Bruadair down to
the year 1666 ; each poem being prefaced by an introduction dealing with

PAN-CELTIC NOTES 191

the subject matter, style and metre of the poem, and with the manuscripts
in which it is preserved. A general introduction deals with the Life and
Writings of the poet. The Editor has followed, as far as possible, a chrono-
logical order so far as the dates of composition can be determined from the
subject matter of the poems themselves. Vol. i. contains chiefly personal
addresses, elegies and laments ; the succeeding volumes will deal with the
political and social verses called forth by the events with which O'Bruadair's
career was connected.

Mr. Thomas O'Rahilly has made considerable progress upon his edition
of the Irish translations of the Spanish stories of Juan Perez de
Montalban.

The Council have been encouraged by receiving an unusual number of
interesting offers of new work in the course of this session. Among these
may be mentioned the following : —

(1) A new version of the Agallamh na Senorach, with a large amount of
hitherto unpublished matter, offered by Professor Douglas Hyde, LL.D.

(2) An edition of Irish bardic poetry relating to the O'Eeilly family
from the Cambridge University Library, by Professor E. Quiggin, with which
he may possibly include the Poems on the Maguire Clan which are preserved
in the Copenhagen MS. described by Dr. L. Ch. Stern in Z. fur Celt.
Phil. II.

(2) An edition of the Poems of Teigue Dall O'Higgin, edited by Miss
Eleanor Knott.

(4) A late Meath romance entitled Teagbhalaibh Dubh Mhic Deaghla,
edited by Mr. J. H. Lloyd.

(5) An Irish version of the Thebaid of Statius, from a copy preserved in
the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, by Rev. G. Calder.

These offers are additional to those announced in the last Report.

The smaller Irish-English Dictionary (price 2s. 6d. net), published in May
of last year, though admirably adapted to the requirements of classes and
schools and of young students, has not hitherto met with the success which
the council anticipated for it. It is hoped that as this book becomes better
known it will be widely adopted for school and class purposes, where the
need of a cheaper dictionary has long been felt. The sale of the larger
dictionary maintains its grounds

Thirty-three new members have joined the Society during the year, bring-
ing the number of effectual members on the roll up to five hundred and sixty.

Mr. S. Boyle presented the Financial Report and Balance Sheet, which
showed that the Society stood on a sound financial basis, but the donations
to the editorial fund have fallen to such a low figure that the Council find
difficulty in offering any remuneration whatever to their editors, the small
annual subscription to the Society being only sufficient to pay its working
expenses. It is much to be hoped that those who are interested in the
publication of Irish manuscripts will contribute to this fund.

192 THE CELTIC REVIEW

Professor E. Quiggin was elected to fill a vacancy on the Council of the
Society, and the honorary officers were re-elected for another year.

LITERATURE

Dr. George Henderson, Celtic Lecturer in the University of Glasgow, is
preparing for publication a new and enlarged edition of Nicolson's Gaelic
Proverbs. It is expected to give many proverbs which the Sheriff had to
keep back owing to want of space.

The Rev. C. M. Robertson, Jura, is engaged on a new edition of
Macalpine's Gaelic Dictionary, a work for which he is excellently qualified.
Macalpine is popular with learners of Gaelic, and there should be a good
sale for this improved edition.

The new edition of the late Dr. Macbain's Etymological Dictionary of the
Gaelic Language is published by Eneas Mackay, Stirling.

The Macdonald Historians have issued a large volume of Gaelic poetry
through the Northern Chronicle.

Mrs. K. W. Grant has published a volume of Gaelic stories (through
Mr. Hugh Macdonald, Oban), which many readers of Gaelic will be glad
to have.

The Northern Chronicle Publishing Company have also issued a book
entitled The Rulers of Strathspey, by the Earl of Cassilis, and a supplementary
volume of Old Ross-shire and Scotland by Mr. W. Macgill.

A delightful volume of translations of old Irish poetry by Professor
Kuno Meyer is published by Constable and Co., London.

The firm of David Nutt have published a new edition of the small
volume on Ossian and Ossianic Literature by the late Alfred Nutt.

The same firm are publishing a book entitled Monumenta Historica Celtica,
on the references to the Celts in classical authors. It is prepared by Mr.
W. Dinan. As Holder's great work is only accessible to those who read
German as well as the classics in the original there should be a secure place
for Mr. Dinan's book.

A new edition of Matthew Arnold's Celtic Literature, with critical notes
by the late Alfred Nutt, has appeared.

A volume of Manx Reminiscences by Dr. J. Clague has been published by
Blackwell, Castletown. It contains much interesting folklore, and the
Manx and English are given on facing pages.

Reviews of these and other volumes will appear here.

SCOTIA

(The Journal of The St. Andrew Society)

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY

Vol. V. No. 3. LAMMAS 191 1 Price 6d. net.

CONTENTS

THE TRUTH ABOUT HARLAW. By Evan M. Barron.

WILLIAM HAMILTON OF BANGOUR. By J. G. Hamilton-Grierson.

THE OTTERBURN MEMORIAL. By C. J. W. D.

SIDE-LIGHTS FROM THE PRIVY COUNCIL REGISTER. By C. F. M.
Maclachlan.

DEESIDE IN EARLY JUNE. {Poem.) By James Whitehead.

CANAIN IS CLIU. By the Rev. Malcolm MacLennan.

THE BLUE BLANKET.

AT THE SIGN OF THE THISTLE. By Ian Reay.

WEST OF SCOTLAND NOTES. By D. Glen MacKemmie.

THE SCOT ABROAD. REVIEWS.

NOTES AND COMMENTS. LETTER TO THE EDITOR.

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Empire, and to represent in the Capital of Scotland Scottish Societies throughout
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